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DOE – Discover Ocean Engineering

Discover Ocean Engineering is a unique opportunity to explore one of the most dynamic and close-knit majors at MIT, Course 2-OE. DiscOE enables students to learn about marine technology, the 2-OE major, and careers in ocean technology through field trips, lab tours, talks with pioneers in the field, and hands-on build challenges making underwater and surface vehicles. Want to build underwater battlebots? Looking to go inside the restricted areas of submarines and shipyards? Like river cruises, field trips, and robot demos? Then you’re in the right place!

We encourage all anticipated majors to apply, since ocean engineering is an incredibly diverse field which touches on all different types of engineering and sciences.

The People

As an entirely student-run program, DiscOE gives incoming first-year students a chance to learn about life at MIT and ocean engineering from the people who know it best. DOE events are planned and supervised by upperclassmen of MIT’s autonomous marine robotics team, Arcturus. Lunches, machine shop tours, and flash talks give students the opportunity to meet the professors and graduate students who may teach, advise and encourage them for the rest of their undergraduate career.

The History

Although maritime engineering has been a part of MIT since the beginning. the Ocean Engineering curriculum has been updated and reframed within the Mechanical Engineering Department. Students take around half of their classes in the regular ME curriculum and half in specialized project classes. Highlights include 2.017 in which students work in teams to build and program a marine robot over the course of the semester. DOE has been an important part of the OE program for nearly 13 years. It is through DOE that many OE graduates discover their interest in Ocean Engineering.

What Will We Do?

A student in DOE will have a blast building Sea Perches, Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), and challenging their friends to underwater battlebots in the MIT Sea Grant’s test tank.

Students can also look forward to field trips off campus at research labs, industry HQs, and shipyards.

They’ll also get a closer look at boats and submarines from MIT’s Marine Autonomy Lab and Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Labs during a demo at the MIT Sailing Pavilion.

And to close out our program, we will be taking a dinner river cruise and a Duck Tour around Boston!

DOE Specifics

  • Dates: Tuesday, August 22- Sunday, August 27, 2023
  • Place: First-year students will be housed in their assigned dormitory. We will be exploring several labs around MIT including the MIT Marine Autonomy Lab and MIT Sea Grant. We will also do offsite field trips to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, company HQs, and Battleship Cove, as well as tours around Boston, both by land and river!
  • Available Spaces: 30
  • Cost: No Charge. The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Ocean Engineering will be covering all costs.