Crabapple Blossom Festival Activity：Ocean Perception and Exploration

March 31 was the open day for the Crabapple Blossom Festival at Tianjin University. Amid various cultural activities, the School of Marine Science and Technology organized a science-promotion activity with the theme of Ocean Perception and Exploration. Nearly 300 middle school students from Tianjin Yaohua Binhai School, Xinhua Middle School, First Hundred Middle School, and The Foreign Language School attached to Tianjin Foreign Studies University attended the event.

An Ocean Equipment Achievement Exhibition was held to helped people gain an idea of what the Ocean is like. Visitors marveled at the the deep sea submarine observation station, the seabed base, the navigation mark, the unmanned ship and other equipment displayed and got a general idea about the mission, focus and significance of marine researches.

Middle school students set out a novel course exploring the ocean. They visited and experienced 11 laboratories including the Ocean Cognitive Museum, the Ocean Detection Technology Laboratory, the Marine Remote Sensing Technology Laboratory, the Ocean Measurement Engineering Laboratory, the Ocean Data Engineering Laboratory, the Marine Chemistry Laboratory, and the Marine Media Laboratory. “I have a totally new perspective about the marine research after I visited the laboratories, watched the ocean video and listened to teachers’ explanation. The immersive simulation of ship driving experience, and marine terrain 3D experience were most exciting.” A student from Yaohua Middle School said.

In addition, the Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) “Dolphin-1” independently developed by the student team under Prof. Zhang Anmin’s guidance,was unveiled at Jingye Lake on the same day. The USV is a long-time multi-purpose unmanned boat using hybrid electric. With its clever hull structure design, it can effectively offset the influence of waves during navigation and keep the equipment stable. The boat can be equipped with a single beam, multi-beams, side-scan sonar, LiDAR, shallow profiler, ADCP, CTD, sound velocity meter, sampler, water quality instrument, laser microscope and other equipment to meet multiple needs like marine surveying and mapping, environmental monitoring, and search and emergency rescue.

It is hoped that through the activity held by the School of Marine Science and Technology, more outstanding students and talents will enroll in the School of Marine Science and Technology and devote themselves to the nationalstrategy of building “maritime power”.