FRIDAYEXTRA !
The Daily Astorian
Friday, April 22, 2016
Weekend Edition
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Georges Oates Larsen shows the water proofing on the wires and control boards on the underwater robot.
UNDERWATER ROBOT
Clatsop Community College student
basks in the technical and virtual worlds
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
G
eorges Oates Larsen doesn’t need
a pool to test Clatsop Community
College’s underwater robot . He
made one on his computer.
Perhaps more than any other student
before him, Larsen has heavily invested
himself in preparing the college’s upstart
robotics team for the annual Marine
Advanced Technology Education under-
water robotics competition, which starts
later this month with regionals in North
Bend.
“Video programming is how I got
started,” said Larse n, 19.
The aspiring mathematics professor
becomes visibly giddy when talking —
usually above many people’s heads — of
linear algebra and other advanced math-
ematical concepts that go into designing
the robot and the virtual world of test-
ing . “Ninety percent of what I know about
electronics is from this project, ” he said.
Larsen, a former homeschooler who
took his GED exam at the college before
enrolling, is captain of the robotics team
in his third and ¿ nal year. Helping him are
a small cadre of students drawn together
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
See ROBOT, Page 3C
Georges Oates Larsen demonstrates a computer simulator that he designed for the underwater robot.