REU SITE: UNOLS-MATE At-Sea Technical Internship Program

The University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), hosted at the University of Washington (UW) School of Oceanography in Seattle, WA, will organize and manage the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Internship program. The program will provide fourteen undergraduate students with internships of two to twelve-weeks and one student with a six-month internship each year for the next three years (2022-2025).

MATE interns work with marine technicians and scientists onboard research vessels. These experiences provide interns with the opportunity to develop their technical, scientific, seamanship and interpersonal skills. Ships that are part of the UNOLS and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) fleets will serve as internship hosts.

While the program is open to all U.S. undergraduates, recruitment efforts are focused on community college students enrolled in marine technology programs and university students interested in marine technical careers. This training effort is important for the continued operation of the U.S. academic research fleet and for the marine industries that benefit by hiring the highly skilled technicians who graduate from the program.

With a focus on recruiting students from community colleges who are interested in careers as marine technicians, the MATE internship program fills a unique need in the continuum of support for undergraduate students in marine sciences. This program provides an excellent bridge between students who need hands-on training and employers who need technical support.

The MATE internship program will provide a total of forty-five undergraduates with internships over the three-year period. Most of the funding provided supports student stipends and their travel to meet the research vessels where they will be working. The MATE internship program supports national goals by developing the next generation of technically skilled workforce.

Skills and experience gained through all MATE internships vary depending on the research vessel, cruise goals and the tasks that mentors need to accomplish during the cruise. Typical experiences include: 1) cruise preparation and coordination; 2)operation and maintenance of specific oceanographic equipment [e.g. Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD), Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), fluorometer, transmissometer, temperature and salinity sampling, nutrient sampling, sonar and echosounders, current profilers, corers and nets, underwater cameras, AUVs, ROVs]; 3) trouble shooting instruments and equipment; 4) chemical analyses; 5) operation and maintenance of computer hardware and software; 6) programming software for data retrieval, analysis, and archiving; 7) seamanship, marine operations, and safety procedures; 8) navigation skills; 9) application of basic oceanographic and meteorological knowledge to sampling design and execution; 10) teamwork and other interpersonal skills; 11) experience working in a marine and scientific environment; and 12) communication skills.

The prior partnership between the MATE Center, UNOLS, and the USCG trained dozens of interns who moved on to work in the fields of marine sciences and marine technology. This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.