Students from the Webb Institute in Glen Cove, New York ventured to Ohmsett, BSEE's National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility in Leonardo, New Jersey, this month to tour the facility and see first-hand how the facility operates.
The tour was the second visit to Ohmsett for the engineering college, which produces graduates with Bachelor of Science degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering. During the tour, students visited the Ohmsett lab to see different types of crude oil, oil spill herders and a dispersant demonstration. The students met with senior test engineer Alan Guarino, who spoke with the students and answered questions about petroleum and marine science. The students also took a tour of the 600-foot, 2.6 million gallon test tank and were treated to a sinusoidal wave demonstration and witnessed wave attenuation by the tank’s artificial beaches.
This outreach effort is part of the PLAY, LEARN, SERVE and WORK outdoors initiative to engage today’s youth in participating in managing our natural resources. Earlier this year Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell formalized the ambitious initiative to inspire millions of young people to PLAY, LEARN, SERVE AND WORK outdoors. The initiative is establishing meaningful and deep connections between young people – from every background and every community – and America’s great outdoors. Through these connections the Department of Interior is investing in the future caretakers of the nation’s public lands.
BSEE is the principal federal agency funding offshore oil spill response research, and Ohmsett is a key part of the bureau’s Oil Spill Response Research Program. Ohmsett provides independent and objective performance testing of full-scale oil spill response equipment and marine renewable energy systems and helps improve technologies through research and development. It is the largest outdoor saltwater wave/tow tank facility in North America and is the only facility where full-scale oil spill response equipment testing, research and training can be conducted in a marine environment with oil under controlled environmental conditions. To find out more about the Ohmsett facility, visit http://ohmsett.com/.
