NEWPORT, R.I. –
Two university senior design teams, and their Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport mentor, presented their unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) Capstone projects to Division Newport staff on April 9.
The students from Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, were tasked with constructing a vehicle within an allotted budget that can detect a sound source, autonomously approach that source, drop a payload on the noisemaker, and return to its starting position. A head-to-head competition between the UUVs was later held at the university’s pool.
Erin Magsamen of Division Newport’s Undersea Warfare Weapons, Vehicles and Defensive Systems Department, who graduated from Roger Williams University in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, serves as a technical mentor to one of the teams. When she was a senior at Roger Williams University Magsamen participated in a very similar Division Newport-sponsored Capstone project, and now as a mentor, she’s experiencing it with an entirely different perspective.
“It’s definitely challenging seeing it from the other side,” she said. “It’s like when you go from being a player to a coach. It’s like, ‘Ugh, I want to get in there and start building stuff.’”
Division Newport Deputy Technical Director Stephen O’Grady was among the employees to view the projects. He spoke to each student, asking them about their biggest challenges during the process, before offering encouraging words.
“These kinds of projects are invaluable,” O’Grady said. “As you prepare for the job market, this is a great project to talk about. You're tackling a problem that we're working on here at a higher level. This is really great.”
For Magsamen, things have come full circle. When she was a student participating in this program, she was mentored by Scott Booth, who is now a co-worker in the same department. Since September, she has met with the students, either in person or virtually, on a weekly basis to discuss ideas and strategies. As a mentor, she described her approach as fairly hands off.
“My philosophy this year has been to have veto authority, where if it’s a really bad idea and they were heading down a bad path, I would veto it,” she said. “But if it’s something that I think is recoverable, or maybe something I wouldn’t do, that could stir an even better idea. You have to let them make mistakes.”
The student design teams included Nathan Arduino, Hunter Dolphin, Nick Efthymiou, Bradley King, Hannah Limanek, Nicholas Savino and Griffin Hebert.
Savino, a mechanical engineering major, said Magsamen was always preparing the team for the next step in the process and appreciated the way she went about mentoring.
“She knew when to butt in and say, ‘Hey guys, this isn’t going to work,’” he said. “You could see early on that we had a plethora of ideas, and she would say some of those ideas weren’t going to work for whatever reason. And then there were times when she would let us go. A lot of the structural integrity of the UUV was entirely on us. It was her way of letting us express our creativity.”
From the outset, the students chose an area of focus for the project, with each one taking a lead role.
“We had a mechanical lead, an electrical lead, a treasurer,” said Hebert, who served as the electrical lead for the team. “Everyone had their own role, and while we had some conflicting ideas, we resolved them in ways that were productive. And honestly, in the end, I think we got the best result.”
Upon graduation, both Savino and Hebert will work at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and said this project has been beneficial.
“It was cool to see what you’re working toward as an engineer be built in front of you,” Savino said. “I think it’s a really good way for students to see what they could do in their postgraduate plans.”
NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869. Commanded by Capt. Chad Hennings, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher's Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.