The Life Aquatic

Underwater drone
Staff members Tom Meulendyk and Chai Chen from the department of physical and environmental sciences test out a new underwater drone at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. The drone is teaching tool that will be used by Professor Mathew Wells (photo by Don

Don Campbell

Date: August 18
Time: 10:16 a.m.
Location: Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre

A new underwater drone equipped with a high-definition camera will give U of T Scarborough students an up-close look of what’s living beneath the surface of Ontario’s lakes.

The teaching tool will be used by undergraduate and master’s students supervised by Mathew Wells, a professor in the department of physical and environmental sciences. Here, staff members Chai Chen and Tom Meulendyk use the pool at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre to test the device for the first time.

The drone, which received funding from UTSC’s Centre for Teaching and Learning, can reach a depth of 75 metres – good for most bodies of water in the province and far deeper than a scuba diver can go. It’s tethered by a long cable and controlled by a remote with a digital screen. It’s also outfitted with bright LED lights and can record panorama video, offering an immersive view of fresh-water wildlife that can’t be replicated in a textbook.

“We are spoiled by the quantity and quality of fresh water we have in Canada, but most of us have no idea what the bottom of our lakes look like,” says Wells. “By visualizing what’s going on underneath the surface, maybe we can better appreciate our bodies of water.”

This story originally appeared in the fall edition of U of T Magazine