Image

 ![Coastal research landscape used as the Northmoor University hero image.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2026-01/camilo-botia-k4vFDPJoDZk-unsplash.1600x1200.jpg.avif?itok=uy6UV27R)

 

 



Subhead

Four years after the case was first made, engineering students have somewhere to fail that does not cost a day of ship time.



 

Publish date

Mon, 9 Feb 2026 - 11:00

 

Author

[Dr. Samuel Hartley](/person/dr-samuel-hartley)

 

The Marine Robotics and Test Basin opened for teaching and research in January and has been booked solid since.

The facility is 30 meters long, 12 wide and 5 deep at one end, with a movable false floor that allows shallow and deep trials in the same tank, a gantry crane over its length, and a wave maker producing a regular sea state to about half a meter.

Priya Iyer, who chairs Marine Engineering and made the case for the basin over four years, put the argument simply. "We were teaching vehicle design to students who had never watched a vehicle fail somewhere they could recover it. A failure in here costs an afternoon. The same failure offshore costs a day of ship time and usually leaves no evidence of what happened."

Undergraduate teaching in MENG 340 Underwater Robotics now runs weekly sessions in the basin through spring term. Graduate research on autonomous systems has priority outside teaching hours, and the student competition team has moved its build and trial work there.

Samuel Hartley, who runs basin operations, notes that the effect on teaching has been immediate and slightly unexpected. "Teams iterate now. They used to build one vehicle and defend it. Now they break one in week three and the second one is much better."

Anyone operating equipment in the basin requires the safety briefing and a second person present. The viewing gallery is open to visitors during open days and by arrangement.



People

[Dr. Priya Iyer](/person/dr-priya-iyer)

[Dr. Samuel Hartley](/person/dr-samuel-hartley)

 

 

Departments

[Department of Marine Engineering](/department/department-of-marine-engineering)

 

 

Programs

[Marine Engineering](/program/marine-engineering)

[Ocean Engineering](/program/ocean-engineering)

 

 

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