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RoboSub 2024 Team Stories – Worcester Polytechnic Institute

“I think one of the best parts of RoboSub is even though its technically a competition it’s so collaborative and we’ve made so many friends and so many great connections..” -Dilce Oliveira, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Woo.Wave

RoboSub 2024 Team Stories – Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Woo.Wave
From Christine Newell
Communications Coordinator, RoboNation

Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Woo.Wave

For our last interview of the 2024 RoboSub Team Stories Series, RoboNation sat down with some of the ladies of Woo.Wave from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They share their journeys, goals, and passion for the team. In the midst of adversity, they remained passionate, grounded, focused, and excited to be amongst like-minded and talented students from around the world. We are excited for what the future looks like for Woo.Wave!   

Names: Dilce Oliveira, Aditri Thakur, Larissa Meyer

Team Name: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Woo.Wave | Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

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

A: Dilce: “I first got into robotics at a RoboSub competition five years ago, during my junior year of high school. I joined my high school, Beaver Country Day School. I competed my junior year and I really fell in love with robotics. I applied to colleges for robotics and I found WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) and I fell in love and I stayed as a robotics engineer.”

A: Aditri: “I was first introduced to robotics through FLL (FIRST Lego League) as a kid, and doing FLL, I grew to love robotics. I continued doing first, throughout middle school, and high school, and then I ended up coming to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to study robotics because I ended up loving it so much. With robotics, what I really wanted to focus on was new environments. When Dilce started the WPI Underwater Robotics team, I really wanted to get involved because I thought perception in an underwater environment would be really interesting and novel, and I just wanted to be a part of it.

A: Larissa: “I first got into robotics in the First Tech Challenge, I spent one year doing that before I transitioned to FRC (First Robotics Challenge) in high school, and I just loved it so much that I wanted to study engineering in college, so I came to WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) which is really known for robotics. I came to study mechanical engineering. And in my first few years of school, I was looking for a hands-on project I could be a part of, that I could really contribute to. I went to a career fair, and someone was talking about autonomous submarines, and I thought ‘That is so cool.’ I grew up on the coast of Washington, where they do all this aquatic research, and this is an awesome application of that. I wanted to get involved and thought about starting an underwater robotics team, so I reached out to the professors at my school and I was like ‘Hey this is something I want to do,’ and they were like ‘Actually, we have another student who’s starting one right now,’ and we actually happen to know each other from a previous event before, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh this is the best thing that ever happened to me!’ And so I joined the team and that’s how I got introduced to RoboSub.” 

Q: What are your future goals for the team and for yourself personally?

A: Dilce: “For me personally, I am graduating so I hope to continue on as a mentor and come back and help out when they need me and just be a supportive cheerleader from this side. I’m really proud of our team, they worked really really hard, and I know that next year they’re going to come back better than ever so, I’m really excited to watch the team grow and help out in any way that I can.”

A: Aditri: “Something I’m really excited about for next year is focusing on getting into the competition with a sub. We really want to focus on autonomous work and something I’m excited about is being a part of that. I’m very interested in object detection and computer vision. Being able to build that basis and teach people in the future is something that I think is really cool. We focus heavily on learning and making sure all of our members are passionate about the things that we’re doing.”

A: Larissa: “I’m really excited to be a part of building the foundation for this team, I’m someone who wants to go into marine research robotics and this is an amazing gateway to this. Especially since I’m studying mechanical engineering, this is an exciting opportunity for me to focus more on the electronic side of the underwater robotics. So that can provide me with all those facets to explore, the area of marine robotics, so I’m really excited about that.

Q: What advice would you give to students who are new to the RoboSub Challenge?

A: Dilce: “My biggest advice is don’t be afraid to just start. We started our team in January, and even though we had a bunch of different type of complications, I would’ve done it again and ten times over. Because if I hadn’t started it this year, there’s no telling if it would’ve started the next year or the year after that. I wouldn’t hesitate and I would just take everything as a learning opportunity and not forget to have fun. I think one of the best parts of RoboSub is even though its technically a competition it’s so collaborative and we’ve made so many friends and so many great connections and learn so much from everyone else, that even just being here is an opportunity that you should really take advantage of.”

A: Aditri: “I would say just keep on persevering, things do turn up well. We made it into competition, which is exciting. We’ve made so many friends here, we’ve learned so much here. But also, that would’ve never happened if we just stopped trying. We also learned a lot from the challenges that we had: challenges with communication, team structure, and we’re using a lot of the knowledge that we gained from our mistakes to make our team better, and be more inclusive, diverse, and just be better structured. So, I think perseverance is a really great quality to have while going through this.”

A: Larissa: “One thing that I would say is don’t be afraid to reach out to the other teams. A lot of the other teams have so many resources available like online that they’re just willing to share with you whether it’s like code or like CAD (computer-aided design) models or just general advice, they’re so excited to share, like with the other people. And that’s why I love about RoboSub, and how it’s such a great community. We made really good friends with the University of Rhode Island team while we were back at school, and we hung out with them, we played mini golf – it was a ton of fun. And I would just recommend, that anybody that wants to get into RoboSub, to totally network with the people in the area, both for resources and to just make a ton of friends and have a good time.”

Thank you Dilce, Aditri, and Larissa for flying out to sunny California and representing Woo.Wave in the RoboSub Challenge. We are excited for the foundation you’re building and looking forward seeing you next summer!

The past six weeks, we heard and read stories from different team members and there seems to be a pattern. More often than not, the underlying message and advice that our students give to one another is to connect, have fun, and to just start. Here at RoboNation, we provide the hands-on experience you need to take those first steps. Whether you are joining in the middle of high school, or trying robotics as a Kindergartener — we always hope you come out of it wanting to know more and wanting to build better for our world. We love listening to our students’ journeys, if you’d like to continue to inspire others, please reach out to us and we’d love to share your story in our community.

Team Website: https://sites.google.com/view/woowave/home?pli=1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woo.wave/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556664068565

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