Seeing the Unseen

Singapore’s waters hold roughly 255 species of hard coral, nearly a third of the world’s total, packed into a tiny area. But since 1953, more than 60% of that has been lost. Decades of reclamation have disrupted coral growth and reduced visibility to less than an arm’s length.

That visibility is what started this project, because you can’t protect something you can’t see.

We are UWCSEA East students: Shaurya Ambedkar, Sanat Ramanathan, Sidhant Jain, and Ayaan Agarwal. That problem became our mission: to build an underwater robot capable of documenting reefs no one else could.

The Journey

Our project didn’t start as a mission. In 2024, Shaurya and Sanat entered MATE ROV, an underwater robotics competition, and placed second in the Navigator class. The robot we used was slow, bulky, and hard to steer. But what stayed with us wasn’t the result, but a question: what could a robot like this do in the real world? So we walked away from the competition and kept building, with no deadline, no rubric, and no trophy to win.

By the end of Grade 9, progress had stalled until Sid joined, bringing 3D printing and computer design skills that really pushed the project forward. It wasn’t a trouble-free process; linking the onboard computers took weeks, the camera stayed blank for a month over a simple settings error, and the motor controllers took more than two months and four failed orders to get right, all without any instruction manual to follow. Other hurdles had nothing to do with engineering. School internet blocking downloads, holidays building out of a bedroom, and a project funded out of pocket were their own challenges.

In October 2025, the rebuilt robot went back in the pool and, to our disappointment, proved it was too weak to resist the current. So we decided we needed better motors and electronics, which we ordered in the middle of mocks, only to realise they were the wrong size. We spent the next few months troubleshooting the new parts, and then were faced with exams. To make sure the project didn’t fade, we worked around exam schedules to keep the work going. Right after exams ended, we had two frantic weeks to get the vehicle into the ocean at East Coast Park, then Pulau Hantu.

Still, the challenges weren’t over. At Hantu, the floats failed. Six metres down, water pressure crushed the foam floats, and the robot began to sink. Shaurya, diving alongside it, lost sight of both the vehicle and his own bearings. Only the tether brought it back. A month later, with a new set of floats, the robot worked at Pulau Tioman.

The Students

The passion behind the project runs deeper than the robot itself. Since he was young, Shaurya has been fascinated by marine life. From aquariums to snorkelling, he would take any chance to see it up close. That passion led him to Prof. Leo Tan, who encouraged him to pursue his interest in marine biology. Many years later, at NParks Ubin Day, Shaurya reconnected with Prof. Tan to discuss the robot’s potential to make an impact locally. Prof. Tan also introduced us to Prof. Huang Danwei of NUS, who gave the project a real purpose and crucial guidance.

We nearly quit more than once, as costs climbed and nothing we ordered worked. What kept us going was the mission and the parents who drove us to the lab and gave us unwavering support. Exam season could easily have ended the project, as it often does for side projects. But it didn’t, because the ROV stopped being something we were just doing and became something we felt responsible for. You can walk away from an unfinished assignment, but not a mission.

From Prototype to Research Tool

With the vehicle tested and working in the ocean, our focus is shifting from proving it works to seeing what it can contribute. The best path we can see is the one that gave the project its purpose: working with Prof. Huang Danwei, contributing to initiatives such as CMDS II, helping to collect marine data and eventually supporting the deployment of autonomous reef-monitoring devices. The goal for us isn’t a competition robot or a general-purpose gadget, but a genuine research tool that can do what hasn’t been done before.

There’s still plenty of work ahead, and we’re only a couple of years from finishing school and heading to university. What happens then is still an open question. But like every other problem we’ve faced so far, we’ll figure it out.

The Lessons

Looking back on the last two years of work, we’ve learnt a lot more than robotics. We learned not to hesitate to dream big and refuse to settle for good enough, because no one imagined we’d get here six months ago, but here we are. This project taught us what real teamwork is. It isn’t always fun and games; it’s supporting each other to pull through, using each and every strength of ours together, and never doubting each other. Maybe more than anything else, this was a great lesson in perseverance. Anything less than absolute determination would have been a failure.

We didn’t do it because it was easy, but because it was hard, it was new, and above all else, it was a mission.