RoboBoat team makes third appearance at competition
He’s fast, he’s smart and he’s named after the shark in “Finding Nemo.” Yep, meet Bruce, the Martin High School RoboBoat Team’s autonomous, high-tech vessel.
Last month, Bruce and the Martin RoboBoat Team, the MHS Seals, traveled to Sarasota, Florida, to compete in the 2025 RoboBoat international competition, where teams take on real-world maritime challenges, like coastal surveillance, port security, oceanographic exploration and multi-domain cooperation between air and sea systems. Each team must design, build and test an autonomous surface vehicle to navigate these tasks.
But the journey starts long before the competition. And what sets Martin apart? They’re the only high school team competing without the backing of a university.
“Having a boat every year gets challenging, but we push through,” said senior and RoboBoat team captain Lauren Janda. “Everyone is so locked in. It’s really cool to see so many people working hard towards the same goal. It makes me really excited for the future of STEM.”
With over 50 students involved, the project is a true team effort. Engineering students research, design and fabricate the boat from wood and fiberglass. Robotics students develop devices for specialized tasks. Electronics teams wire components, integrating computers, thrusters and sensors like depth cameras, LIDAR, GPS and IMUs. Meanwhile, computer science students program algorithms and train vision models to bring it all together.
“It’s so rewarding to be able to see all of the hard work we put into the boat and see it working in the water,” said junior and computer science captain Alec Jensen.
This was the team’s third year competing, and the competition keeps getting tougher and tougher. But they’ve gotten better and better.
That’s why the team – and Bruce – were up until 2 a.m. practicing at the hotel pool. 
“These kids are competing against people who have been in this industry and are working towards advanced degrees in engineering and computer science,” said chemistry teacher Laura Ebanks. “Compared to their competition, they’re kiddos who are going into this with math deficiencies, and the fact that they are still able to outperform universities and design something that works and make it better after each competition, that’s something that we’re really proud of.”
The Seals didn’t just compete. They also won the Data and Discovery Award, earning a $400 prize.
“It was a really great opportunity,” said sophomore Vesper Nguyen. “I had a great time, and I felt like I was really involved. We got to meet a bunch of colleges and incorporate their ideas into our design, too.”
As the team awaits the final results from the 2025 competition, one thing is certain, they’re already gearing up for 2026!
Learn more about Martin RoboBoat.