ROVs: The Path to Ocean Exploration with Erica Moulton

Name: ROVs: The Path to Ocean Exploration with Erica Moulton
Start: 2024-07-10T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-07-10T20:30:00-05:00
Location: Y-kiki Divers

Schedule

Wed Jul 10 2024 at 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Y-kiki Divers | Chesterfield, MO

Join us July 10, 2024 for a presentation by Erica Moulton, "ROVs: The Path to Ocean Exploration."
Keeping up with the advances in technology is tough, but it is also giving us access to the oceans of the world in ways we never dreamed possible. ROVS are an innovative way to get techie and have fun learning about ocean exploration while using the technology and tools that make current ocean research possible. Finally, all those hours of video games might just pay off as you replicate how scientists navigate the oceans with underwater robots! Erica is going to walk us through the vast array of technology in the ocean, what it is being used for and the concepts behind building your own underwater robot as well as discovering how the future of the blue economy could use your talents and contributions.
Erica Moulton Biography:
Erica Moulton is an educator, marine scientist, adventurer and maker with more than 20 years’ experience designing, developing and implementing continuing education & marine and environmental education courses. She has worked in the U.S. and abroad with experience, in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, including most aspects of education programming and outreach.
Erica loves the challenge of answering the question "what do you do?" For her, it’s a combination of a lot of her passions. Underwater robots, scubadiving, outreach education, grant writing, exploring and citizen science. It may seem like different directions all at the same time, but really they are all pointed in the same direction - using science to explore.
In her day job Erica is the Director of the St. Petersburg College STEM Center at Bay Pines, engaging students in contextualized curriculum and in her free time she runs #pvcrov, a small business geared toward building and teaching others about underwater robots. Erica also serves as the Director of the Center for Open Exploration (C4OE) a non-profit providing connections to grant opportunities for citizen science projects. She is also a two time Antarctic Expedition member and was a member of the The 2014-2018 Sedna Epic Expedition- making her a true bi-polar explorer.
Always for an adventure, she has always been passionate about science since she first declared that it was what she wanted to do at the age of four. She earned her B.S. from the University of West Florida, and was inducted into Beta Beta Beta, as an undergrad. Erica also spent a semester on board the LIU Southampton vessel Spirit of Massachusetts, traveling from Maine to Haiti. She earned her Master’s degree in Conservation Education from Prescott College while living with the Arawak Amerindians in Guyana, South America.
As a college instructor and biologist for 10 years at HCC, Erica designed, developed, and implemented continuing education and environmental education courses. During her college tenure, she was part of a team of four scientists who facilitated an aquaculture experiment aboard the Space Shuttle Mission STS 95, with Astronaut John Glenn.
Erica has been actively involved in the Marine Technology Society, serving as Chair of two committees. She has hosted and coordinated the MTS Ocean Explorers program. She currently conducts ROV education and training with her small business, PVC ROV, and has partnered with ORCA, NySci, NAUI Green Diver, Vulcan, AUVSI Foundation, SeaGlide and OpenROV. Recently, she has presented her ROV outreach at the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History and at the Explorer’s Club in NYC.

Erica’s personal interests include running in events—from Ragnar to half marathons—and spending time outdoors with her family. Her life’s passion is helping others understand science, especially through her technical contributions to the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) kits used in student competitions and simple ocean exploration. Erica markets her own version of an ROV kit, and jumps at every opportunity to teach people how to work in the underwater world—it’s difficult to beat the feeling she gets when watching someone’s face light up after she helps them turn a plastic coat hanger into an underwater robot! Her version of the ‘little coat hanger’ ROV offers the perfect hands-on lesson to move most people beyond their fears of working with electronics and water.

Website: http://pvcrov.wixsite.com/pvcrov
Twitter: @ROV_Erica, #pvcrov
Instagram: @pvcrov
Email: [email protected]
Join us at 7pm for the presentation. Feel free to come to the shop at 6:30pm and bring a snack and/or favorite beverage to share with other attendees prior to the presentation. There will also be an option to listen online.
Click this link to join the meeting online: https://meet.goto.com/Y-kikiDivers/speaker-series-meeting-room
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https://www.y-kiki.com/en/y-kiki-divers-speaker-series