CLINTON — For STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) student teams at Clinton High School and Clinton Middle School, several regionally held competitions took place in a very short span of time.
Multiple student groups and individuals representing Clinton Community Schools recently competed in three STEM-based competitions over eight days across Michigan at various school venues including the University of Michigan, Charlotte Aquatic Center and the Oakland Community College campus.
And at each event, Clinton students fared rather well against their competition.
The Michigan Regional SeaPerch Challenge competition, for example, co-hosted by the University of Michigan’s Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering Department and Clinton Community Schools, saw Clinton High and Middle School STEM teams earn first place overall in the High School Stock, Middle School Stock and Open Class Divisions at the 2025 underwater robotics competition. And for the first time, Clinton will be sending four teams to compete in the International SeaPerch Challenge at the University of Maryland with three automatic qualifiers and one wild card spot based on performance.
Clinton High School student Chase Gillman, left, is pictured guiding a tether for an underwater robot during the Square One Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design competition, while Gabe Manchester, seated with back to the pool, drives the robot by viewing the screen of an onboard camera.
Advanced STEM students exceled in underwater robotics competitions by placing first in the Craftmanship category at the 2025 Square One Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design Competition hosted at the Charlotte Aquatic Center and placing second overall in the Performance category of the separate pool course events in the High School Senior Division.
Lastly, more Advanced STEM students from Clinton competed for the first time in the 2025 Square One V2X Competition on the Oakland Community College campus. The team of Chase Gillman, Brian Ferree and Robert McDonald came away with a first-place win in the challenge that involved coding a small car to perform tasks autonomously — three in advance of the competition, and three complex tasks at the High School Senior competition.
More information about each of these competitions can be found below:
Clinton students sweep all classes at Michigan Regional SeaPerch Competition
The Michigan SeaPerch event, held at Canham Natatorium on the University of Michigan campus, registered more than 40 middle and high school teams ranging from Petoskey in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula to Columbus, Ohio, to compete in five different underwater robotics challenges:
Pictured, from left, are Robert McDonald, Jaren Settles and Brian Ferree, Clinton High School students who represented the OceanPerch team at the 2025 Michigan Regional SeaPerch competition. The event, co-hosted by Clinton Community Schools and the University of Michigan’s Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering Department, is an underwater robotics competition.
Pool Mission Course: Series of tasks requiring robots to open doors, transport sinking and floating items, and navigate through complex structures.
Pool Obstacle Course: Testing robot high-speed maneuverability through a series of hoops at varying depths and angles.
Technical Design Report: Documents the development of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) features including the design prototypes and testing results.
Drag Race: Bracket-style competition that allows all teams to compete head-to-head and test their ROV’s top speeds. This task is not calculated for international challenge qualifications.
Underwater Soccer: Another bracket-style competition that allows all teams to compete head-to-head and test their ROV’s maneuverability, dexterity and strength to score goals of a submerged ball. This task is not calculated for international challenge qualifications.
Results for Clinton teams is as follows:
Open Class Champion: International qualifier
OceanPerch team of Brian Ferree, Jaren Settles, Robert McDonald and Chase Gillman: Overall first place in Open Class Division, first place Pool Obstacle Course, first place Pool Mission Course, first place Technical Design Report, second place Drag Race (high school).
High School Champion: International Qualifier
Dandruff team of Broden Manchester, Jacob Pizio, Cole Hillegonds, Louie Della-Badia and Joe Hodges: Overall first place High School Division, first place Pool Obstacle Course, first place Pool Mission Course, eighth place Technical Design Report and first place Drag Race (high school).
Pictured, from left, are Louie Della-Badia, Cole Hillegonds, Jacob Pizio and Broden Manchester, Clinton High School students who represented Team Dandruff at the 2025 Michigan Regional SeaPerch competition. The event, co-hosted by Clinton Community Schools and the University of Michigan’s Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering Department, is an underwater robotics competition.
Middle School Champion: International Qualifier
Toilet Paper team of Haiden Bennett, Spencer Elkins, Chris Scholten and Jacob Ruhl: Overall first place Middle School Division, first place Pool Obstacle Course, first place Pool Mission Course, second place Technical Design Report and first place Drag Race (middle school).
Wild Card Performance: International Qualifier
Team Drop Off of Grant Kutzley, Jaxon Phillip and Gradyn Whelan: Overall first place High School Division, second place Pool Obstacle Course, second place Pool Mission Course and second place Technical Design Report.
The International SeaPerch Challenge will be held at the University of Maryland from May 31-June 1. The event brings in approximately 250 teams from seven countries and 80 regionals across the United States.
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Advanced STEM students at Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design competition
The team of Gabriel Manchester, Anthony Salzano and Chase Gillman designed and built a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to travel underwater and perform multiple competition performance tasks at the Charlotte Aquatic Center event.
“The students continued a tradition of excellence in the competition by earning a first place in the craftsmanship of their robot and a second place overall in the performance category of three separate pool course events in the High School Senior Division,” Clinton High School science, STEM instructor Ron Schaffner said.
Like the SeaPerch challenge, the unique facet of the Square One Underwater competition was a challenge that required the ROV driver to not look in the pool while driving the vehicle. Instead, drivers used a monitor that displayed the onboard feed from a mounted fishing camera.
Pictured, from left, are Gradyn Whelan, Jaxon Philip and Grant Kutzley, Clinton High School students who represented Team Drop Off at the 2025 Michigan Regional SeaPerch competition. The event, co-hosted by Clinton Community Schools and the University of Michigan’s Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering Department, is an underwater robotics competition.
The ROV, Schaffner said, was built with four bilge pump motors, PVC and a 30-foot cord tethered to a 12-volt power source and a controller box using DPDT (double pole, double throw) switches.
Clinton’s team was one of only two to successfully perform dexterity and maneuverability in a task called “Bombs Away,” which required the robots to remove “bombs” from a submerged rack and from the surface drop them into bins of increasing value and decreasing size.
Students from Clinton were also one of two teams to collect air-filled rubber balls of differing size, pull them underwater and place them into a “safe region” or containment zone.
Marine Surveying was a third event of the competition and involved using the robot’s camera to measure two sections of an underwater pipeline “as precisely as possible,” Schaffner said. The final event was a bracket-style drag race challenge that saw Clinton’s team finish in third place.
Pictured, from left, are Haiden Bennett, Chris Scholten and Jacob Ruhl, Clinton Middle School students who represented Team Toilet Paper at the 2025 Michigan Regional SeaPerch competition. The event, co-hosted by Clinton Community Schools and the University of Michigan’s Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering Department, is an underwater robotics competition.
“The day had its fill of adversity to overcome with a malfunctioning battery and blown fuse, in addition to mechanical modifications needed after missing one complete test trial,” Schaffner said.
Advanced STEM team wins V2X Coding competition
The team of Chase Gillman, Brian Ferree and Robert McDonald earned a first-place victory during the Square One V2X challenge that involved coding a small vehicle to autonomously perform a variety of increasingly complex tasks.
Gillman demonstrated skill and detail in the coding, performance and recording of video of the robot performing the first three tasks, Schaffner said. Once initiated by the coder, the car moved completely according to code that included moving forward, stopping, turning, going backward, using sensors to respond to objects in the road and identifying colors of objects.
All three team members contributed to the success of completing the three performance tasks, Schaffner said.
Clinton High School’s student team of Chase Gillman, Brian Ferree and Robert McDonald earned a first-place victory during the Square One V2X challenge that involved coding a small vehicle to autonomously perform a variety of increasingly complex tasks. Pictured, the vehicle is seen during the “Safe Passage” event.
The “Supply Run” challenge involved coding the car to carry a load of blocks around a track as many times as possible in a given time by sensing the black oval and following it.
“Return to Safety” used a disaster site setting and the robot had to move small figures from “Danger Zones” to a staging area.
“The last and most complex event was ‘Safe Passage,’” Schaffner said. “This task integrated coding skills where the car — carrying a load through a dangerous fire while following a black-lined path — sensed a turn and slowed down to make the turn while changing colors to yellow for caution, stopped at a stop sign detected by a sensor, turned red, waited five seconds, then moved forward leaving the danger area.”
— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at bheineman@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @LenaweeHeineman.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: STEM students at Clinton schools competed in 3 events over 8 days