Underwater Robot Team Earns Award at 2025 World Championship

"Yellow Crab"-the remotely operated underwater vehicle designed by an interdisciplinary Wentworth team-in between competitions

Wentworth Institute of Technology's underwater robotics team, WUROV, concluded a successful 2024-2025 season, earning a prestigious individual award at the MATE ROV World Championship, which was held last week in Alpena, Michigan.

Former club president Belinda Truong was recognized as an "Engineering Presentation MVP" for her outstanding skills in communicating the team's complex engineering work to a panel of judges.

This year's competition theme focused on critical environmental and historical preservation issues within the Great Lakes. To meet this challenge, the Wentworth team developed an advanced remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named "Yellow Crab." The ROV was designed to carry out tasks related to freshwater ecosystem conservation, renewable energy infrastructure, and marine archaeology in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

This latest achievement at the 2025 world championship builds upon a foundation of success from the previous year. During the 2023-2024 season, the WUROV team's innovative design earned them third placein the 2024 MassRobotics Annual University Form & Function Challenge. That victory secured their qualification for the 2024 MATE ROV World Championship in Kingsport, Tennessee, marking a significant milestone for the student-run team.

WUROV (Wentworth Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle), which operates under the university's Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) chapter, provides a platform for students to tackle real-world problems. Throughout the past academic year, the IEEE group has also been dedicated to community outreach, visiting Springfield Central High School to demonstrate ROV technology, hosting a soldering workshop at Wentworth's Accelerate Makerspace, and serving as judges at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) State Championship.

The 2025 WUROV is comprised of:

• Belinda Truong, Electrical Engineering '25 (CEO)
• Noah DeGrazia, Electrical Engineering '26 (CTO and Team Lead Electrical)
• Victor Lomba, Computer Science '25 (Team Lead Software)
• Lulya Tesfamicael, Mechanical Engineering '26 (Team Lead Mechanical)
• Liam Kayyal, Mechanical Engineering '26 (Mechanical Team)
• Sean Dickerson, Mechanical Engineering '27 (Mechanical Team)
• Quin Cabral, Electrical Engineering '27 (Electrical Team)
• Nan Mozan Oo, Biological Engineering '27 (Electrical Team)
• Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Saurav Basnet (Team Mentor)