Woman Applies ROV Competition Skills aboard the Nautilus and at Disneyland

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Tara Willis obtained her "dream job" of working with deep sea explorer Robert Ballard through participation in the MATE Center's ROV competition and At-Sea Internship programs.
When not at sea, Willis uses her technical and trouble-shooting skills as a ride-control systems specialist at Disneyland where she keeps the animatronics, like the Ursula figure in the Under the Sea ride, and the mechanical aspects of rides functioning.

Tara Willis was "that giddy little kid" who thought Robert Ballard's deep sea exploration of the RMS Titanic in 1985 "was so amazing" and something she would like to do.

She didn't act on that idea until she was in her 30s and taking an elective robotics course at Long Beach City College. It led to her participation in the international competition for underwater robots, also known as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), sponsored by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center. MATE obtained support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education program, the Marine Technology Society, and several marine companies to start the competitions in 2001. The competition continues to grow with support from dozens of organizations and participation by students from schools and colleges around the world.

The competition experience was so positive that Willis applied for an At-Sea Internship through MATE. None other than Ballard's E/V Nautilus team selected her.

"Out of that internship, I've actually been hired as one of their mainstay contract pilots," Willis said. In the summer of 2015 she helped pilot the research vessel’s ROV Hercules and ROV Argus when they explored the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. In the past she was part of the Nautilus team when it sailed to the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Willis’s biography on the Nautilus Live website states: “As a member of the robotics team she is able to showcase her knowledge and skill in electrical and robotics in building remotely operated vehicles for competition.”

During the months when the Nautilus is in port, Willis attends college to complete her bachelor's degree, and she applies her technical and trouble-shooting skills as a ride-control systems specialist at Disneyland.

"The same kind of pressure that happens when you are out at sea and your vehicle is not working, the same thing applies definitely at Disneyland, because if that figure is not working that four-year-old is not getting on the attraction and seeing her favorite character," Willis explained.

Impact of ROV Competition

Willis credits MATE’s ROV competitions with teaching her teamwork and problem-solving strategies. She  recounted that during the international competition the retractable arm "fix" she designed for her team's ROV slid out on a drawer, swiveled to pick up things at the bottom of the pool, and then latched back in place. For her the most important aspect of the competition was its influence on her career decisions. She is not alone in this regard.  

MATE's data indicate the ROV competition has had a similar impact on other participants. MATE 2015 survey of competition student alumni found that 85% of the college graduates had earned a STEM degree; 85% of the current college students were working toward a STEM degree; 73% of the employed alumni were working in a STEM fields; and 67% of the alumni reported the competition influenced their career paths.

MATE's longitudinal data on 252 At-Sea interns indicate that 106 of the former interns now work in marine STEM fields, 66 work in non-marine STEM fields, 22 are STEM teachers, and 58 are continuing their education.

Teamwork on the Nautilus

Resourcefulness is an absolute necessity at sea, Willis said, "Because there's no Home Depot on the ship. So when a scientist goes, 'Hey, I want to recover this sort of sample, and you've got a trowel and some duct tape, you've got to make it work.' "

The team of scientists and graduate students that Ballard leads on the Nautilus treat the technicians, who maintain and pilot the ROVs, well.  

"We're the rock stars on board. We're the ones that get their jobs, their ideas, done. So, yes, we get treated well because we have the hardest job on the boat. None of the science happens unless the vehicles are down in the water... if there is a technical problem and we have to pull the vehicles out of the water, we're the ones on deck doing the maintenance to get them back in."

Willis said the men and women on the Nautilus’s engineering team consider the ROVs their "babies" and focus intently on the current and seafloor conditions as they pilot the Hummer-size vehicles a mile or two below the surface of the water. The longest dive she has participated in lasted 80 hours straight.

During the interview at a showcase session of the 2015 ATE Principal Investigators  Conference the thrill Willis gets from both her jobs came through in her confident, thorough explanations of photos that show her working on the Nautilus and repairing the Ursula animatronics figure on the Under the Sea ride at Disneyland.  

Willis had worked on the operations side of Disneyland for several years before the goal of earning more money prompted her at the age of 30 to go back to college. She enrolled in Long Beach City College intending to become a certified electrician. When she had attended college 10 years earlier, she took lots of history and technical theater courses.

After earning her associate's degree in electrical technology from Long Beach City College in 2014, Willis decided to pursue a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. She is not sure what new job this degree will lead to when she completes it in two or three years.

"I am actually open to any opportunities that come my way. It's what makes this journey so amazing. I thought my childhood dream of working with Dr. Ballard was something that I would never achieve, and since I have, I now know that anything is possible," she wrote in an email.

During the interview she explained that pursuing a bachelor's degree in engineering was not something she anticipated doing when she went back to college. "I never thought [that] would even be possible because my background was history and theater. So what am I doing in engineering? I'm having a blast," she said.

Her advice to other students: "Anything is possible. Just don't give up. The struggle will be worth it."  

Photos of the Nautilus’s Galapagos expedition are at

 http://www.nautiluslive.org/album/2015/06/20/dramatic-changes-geology-galapagos-rift

A video of the Nautilus’s Galapagos expedition is at  

http://www.nautiluslive.org/video/2015/06/13/amazing-creatures-galapagos-hydrothermal-vents

A video about the 2015 MATE ROV competition is at  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGbw_j3689k

Categories:
  • engineering
  • environment
  • science
From:
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