Developed and managed by the NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute<\/a> (OECI), an organization comprised of multiple institutions and organizations, and led by URI\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography, the B2OE program arranges for CCRI students to work on OECI research projects 6-8 hours per week alongside URI graduate students, professors, and industry professionals at URI\u2019s Narragansett Bay Campus. The students don\u2019t receive credit toward their major, but they do earn a stipend for their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCCRI is training excellent students for their associates degrees, but they may not be aware of career opportunities in the ocean workforce,\u201d said Adam Soule<\/a>, OECI executive director. \u201cMany of the CCRI students in the B2OE program matriculate to URI to complete their undergraduate degree with a newfound appreciation for how their skills may be applied to the ocean enterprise. In addition, the B2OE students contribute directly to OECI successes in research, communication, software development, and engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As many as 10 CCRI students may be students selected for the program each year. During the application process, it is determined if the students\u2019 skills and interest align with the needs and expectations of the mentors and their associated projects.<\/p>\n\n\n Projects relate to the following subjects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Professor Andrew Davies<\/a>, who has a joint appointment in GSO and the College of the Environment and Life Sciences, has participated in the program for years by welcoming CCRI students into his lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s been phenomenal, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with some great students who are really invested in developing their skills and are not afraid of trying new things,\u201d said Davies. \u201cThey\u2019ve come with fabulous mindsets, a willingness to learn, and a broad set of skills that have been tremendously valuable for the lab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tim Melendez, who is from Lynn, Massachusetts, but resides in West Greenwich, has worked in Davies\u2019 lab the last two years after entering the Bridge to Ocean Exploration Program in 2023-2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTim has been developing new hardware parts for our platforms, bringing his experience in mechanical engineering to the fore,\u201d said Davies. \u201cHe has phenomenal skills with CAD, prototyping, and general fabrication, which have been put into practice with our ocean observation platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt Grecco and Dwight Paniagua, from Warwick and Providence respectively, were added to Davies\u2019 lab last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMatt and Dwight developed new databases that helped to streamline data management and workflow on our ocean observing program,\u201d said Davies. \u201cMatt is maintaining and developing our suite of database tools used by students and staff to analyze oceanographic data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After completing an associate degree in computer engineering at CCRI in May 2025, Paniagua transferred to URI as a junior through CCRI\u2019s Joint Admissions Agreement<\/a>. He\u2019s expecting to graduate from URI with a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer engineering in 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy involvement in the Bridge to Ocean Exploration Program partially influenced my decision to attend URI,\u201d said Paniagua. \u201cWhile still enrolled at CCRI, I met a lot of nice, hardworking, and amazing people in the URI community who were passionate about their work, which I found motivating and inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paniagua is currently working on low-power electronics and firmware programming to help Davies build a new remote camera system that is capable of long-term deployments. He\u2019s applied his Python programming skills to predict the lifetime of the camera system with a given battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the next cohort of the Bridge to Ocean Exploration Program, Davies expects to bring on two additional students to work on new projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/916\/IMG_9853-908x1024-copy-2.jpg\")
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