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The Question
Most students have never seen the equipment that lets ocean engineers actually study the sea. The instruments cost millions of dollars, sit on research vessels they'll never set foot on, and produce data they'll never see processed. Dr. Sandoval has spent her career trying to change that, building low-cost ocean technology that puts deep-sea instrumentation within reach of people without million-dollar budgets. This summer, she's bringing that work to middle and high school students. They build real ocean sensing equipment with their own hands, and they take it home.
What Students Build
Over two-and-a-half weeks, students build a working hydrophone, an underwater microphone designed to capture sounds from the ocean. They learn the physics of how sound moves through water, the engineering of how to waterproof electronics for ocean use, and the data work of processing what their hydrophone records. By the end, each student takes home a working hydrophone they can deploy at a local waterway, the aquarium, or any body of water their family visits.
The build sits at the intersection of engineering, marine biology, and AI. Students record sound in test environments and learn to use AI tools to identify what they're hearing, fish, sea life, human noise, environmental signatures. By the final week, each student has a working hydrophone, a body of recordings they've made themselves, and the technical understanding to keep using both after the program ends.
The Mentor
Dr. Jessica Sandoval is an ocean engineer who designs deep-sea remotely operated vehicles and tagged sperm whales as a Harvard postdoc on Project CETI, the effort to build a Rosetta Stone for whale communication. She has done forty deep-sea expeditions as an ROV pilot. Her company, AquaVela, is building the low-cost ocean technology that makes ocean science accessible beyond the research vessel and the PhD. This summer she's bringing that mission to middle and high school students through the build experience she wishes she'd had at their age.
Who This Is For
Open to middle and high school students with curiosity about the ocean. No prior programming or engineering experience required. Students should be willing to work with hand tools, focus on building tasks for sustained periods, and contribute as a collaborative member of a small classroom. Students who get easily frustrated by hands-on troubleshooting may find this challenging.
Logistics
Two-and-a-half weeks. June 15 to July 1, 2026. In-person at Pierrepont School in Westport, CT. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Two sessions per day, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM and 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM. Students join one session. Cohorts of up to 6 students per session, with two sessions running in parallel for up to 12 students total. $3,200 fully inclusive (hardware, materials, all sessions).
Apply by June 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM.
Beyond the build sessions, students work on their own, and they are not alone when they do. The lab is supported by a 24/7 Slack channel and a team of scholars and practitioners at the Academy. Students also work alongside SeqHub's AI co-teacher, which helps them think through problems on off days without doing the work for them.