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RoboSub 2024 Team Stories – The Ohio State University

“Get to know the teams around you, get to know the event staff, they’re all great resources, they can give you many opportunities. I got a job from talking to people at RoboSub.” -Amber Dellacqua, The Ohio State University, Ohio State University Robotics

RoboSub 2024 Team Stories – The Ohio State University, Ohio State Underwater Robotics
From Christine Newell
Communications Coordinator, RoboNation

The Ohio State University – Ohio State Underwater Robotics

RoboNation had the chance to chat with Amber Dellacua, President of Ohio State Underwater Robotics at The Ohio State University, during the 2024 RoboSub Competition. Amber, excited to share her journey, also mentioned the team’s outreach efforts in the STEM community. She is motivated to expand their outreach to girls interested in STEM. We are grateful for teams like Ohio State that provide opportunities to young learners beyond their regular work. Ohio State Underwater Robotics was awarded 2nd Place in the Autonomy Challenge, 2nd Place in Design Documentation, 1st Place in System Assessment, and the Special Award: Digital Warrior. Learn more about the competition results here.

Name: Amber Dellaquca

Team Name: The Ohio State University, Ohio State Underwater Robotics | Columbus, Ohio, USA

Q: How did you get into robotics? What is your journey like?

A: “[During] my freshmen year of high school. I was sitting in my engineering class in lunch time and another student walks in from an underwater robotics team, and being curious I told my teacher ‘I’m going to check out what these people are doing’ and I got to learn about remotely operated vehicles… I wanted to find a college that had an underwater robotics team, so I ended up at Ohio State! I’ve been on the team since 2020. [Early on], I was very involved in the mechanical team, junior year I was vice president, senior year I was president, and now it has led me to a career doing underwater sensors, in a defense company in Arlington, Virginia…. For those who are at the competition for the first year, don’t hesitate to talk to people, get to know the teams around you, get to know the event staff, they’re all great resources, they can give you many opportunities. I got a job from talking to people at RoboSub.”

“I also formed a great relationship from our sister team S.O.N.I.A. [l’École de technologies supérieur] from Canada, we talk throughout the school year, and we try our best to find time to hang out and just check up on our robots.”

Q: What lessons did you learn from last year that you applied to your project this year? 

A: “For us last year, we came into competition with a vehicle that was relatively far off, but we didn’t have a lot of time to troubleshoot issues, so we came into many issues… and random software bugs. This year coming into it, we had a plan to make sure we had a steady stable software before we arrived into the competition. We spent a lot of time, before and prepping, testing, and making sure we were able to complete a task on our first day. A big step for us too is trying to prequalify early on in this season, so rather than prequalifying in June, we prequalified in February I believe, we were the second team. On top of that, coming in, we’ve always had a very late vision model. Last year we were training vision at competition, this year, we’ve been training vision since January. [We tried] to speed up the process in a way that benefits the whole team and allows us to create a more reliable vehicle….”

“Another thing we’ve been trying to implement is just taking your time and thinking through our thoughts. Because, if you’re sleep deprived, you might accidentally make a stupid [decision], so we’ve been trying to document our thought process to make sure we’re doing what’s going to be most beneficial for the robot at competition. We heavily document all our stuff on our team’s page, [which is] basically a big collaborative workspace for all our software teams, and electrical and mechanical. [We] try our best to keep that flooded with information for everyone, and for years to come.”

Q: As a woman in a field that’s predominantly male, what would you say to girls who are interested in STEM or in robotics? 

A: “I would say don’t be afraid to ask questions and put yourself out there, though it might be intimidating, I mean I’ve experienced it being a woman in STEM and people always look at you and like ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ but be confident in your own ideas, it’s okay to express that you know what you’re doing, some people might turn it down but you don’t have to prove your worth to other people, you’re here for a reason, and you should try your best to go at it and not look back.”

Amber’s journey is a powerful reminder that opportunities are everywhere—sometimes all it takes is curiosity and the courage to connect with others to turn those opportunities into a rewarding career in STEM. We can’t wait to see Ohio State University in 2025!

Team Website: https://org.osu.edu/osu-uwrt/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/osu_uwrt/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-underwater-robotics-team/

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