(L-R) James Stening, Matthew Bush, Victoria Sacre, Ashley Carter and Prof. Ian Wakeman

A team of students from the School of Engineering and Informatics is seeking your support in the Thales Project Arduino international competition.

The students – James Stening, Matthew Bush, Victoria Sacre, Ashley Carter – took part in a workshop in March 2018 organised by the University Careers & Employability Centre. The session was run by experts from the Thales engineering and technology company, and focussed on Arduino (an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software).

After the workshop they formed Team OOD, and spent three weeks designing and creating ‘Oceanic Object Detector’: a wireless sensor device capable of detecting and photographing submerged objects. After competing against fellow students from Sussex, they went on to compete against students from other universities across the UK, and have been selected as top UK team.

Professor Ian Wakeman, Acting Head of School, said: “The School is very proud of Team OOD. They've beaten off strong competition from Manchester and other UK institutions, and are rightly competing on the world stage.”

The team now needs your vote in the final stage of the competition against eight other teams from the rest of the world — in order to be crowned Global Arduino Champion, and have the opportunity to visit a Thales Research Centre in the USA, Canada, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Australia, Singapore or China.

To vote for Team OOD, visit https://www.thalesarduino.com/arduino. Voters will be entered into a prize draw to win a smart watch.