For This Engineer, Taking Deep Dives Is Part of the Job Early in Levi Unema’s career as an electrical engineer, he was presented with an unusual opportunity. While working on assembly lines at an automotive parts supplier in 2015, he got a surprise call from his high-school science teacher that set him off on an entirely new path: piloting underwater robots to explore the ocean’s deepest abysses. That call came from Harlan Kredit, a nationally renowned science teacher and board member of a Rhode Island-based nonprofit called the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration (GFOE). The organization was looking for an electrical engineer to help design, build, and pilot remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ### Levi Unema ******Employer** ****Deep Exploration Solutions **Occupation** ****ROV engineer **Education** Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, Michigan Technological University This was an exciting break for Unema, a Washington state native who had grown up tinkering with electronics and exploring the outdoors. Unema joined the team in early 2016 and has since helped develop and operate deep-sea robots for scientific expeditions around the globe. The GFOE’s contract with NOAA expired in July, forcing the engineering team to disband. But soon after, Unema teamed up with four former colleagues to start their own ROV consultancy, called Deep Exploration Solutions, to continue the work he’s so passionate about. “I love the exploration and just seeing new things every day,” he says. “And the engineering challenges that go along with it are really exciting, because there’s a lot of pressure down there and a lot of technical problems to solve.” ## Nature and Technology Unema’s fascination with electronics started early. Growing up in Lynden, Wash., he took apart radios, modified headphones, and hacked together USB chargers from AA batteries. “I’ve always had to know how things work,” he says. He was also a Boy Scout, and much of his youth was spent hiking, camping, and snowboarding. That love of both technology and nature can be traced back, at least in part, to his parents—his father was a civil engineer, and his mother was a high-school biology teacher. But another major influence growing up was Kredit, the science teacher who went on to recruit him. (Kredit was also a colleague of Unema’s mother.) Kredit has won numerous awards for his work as an educator, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching in 2004. Like Unema, he also shares a love for the outdoors as Yellowstone National Park’s longest-serving park ranger. “He was an excellent science teacher, very inspiring,” says Unema. When Unema graduated high school in 2010, he decided to enroll at his father’s alma mater, Michigan Technological University, to study engineering. He was initially unsure what discipline to follow and signed up for the general engineering course, but he quickly settled on electrical engineering. A summer internship at a steel mill run by the multinational corporation ArcelorMittal introduced Unema to factory automation and assembly lines. After graduating in 2014 he took a job at Gentex Corp. in Zeeland, Mich., where he worked on manufacturing systems and industrial robotics. ## Diving Into Underwater Robotics In late 2015, he got the call from Kredit asking if he’d be interested in working on underwater robots for GFOE. The role involved not just engineering these systems, but also piloting them. Taking the plunge was a difficult choice, says Unema, as he’d just been promoted at Gentex. But the promise of travel combined with the novel engineering challenges made it too good an opportunity to turn down. Building technology that can withstand the crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean is tough, he says, and you have to make trade-offs between weight, size, and cost. Everything has to be waterproof, and electronics have to be carefully isolated to prevent them from grounding on the ocean floor. Some components are pressure-tolerant, but most must be stored in pressurized titanium flasks, so the components must be extremely small to minimize the size of the metallic housing. Unema conducts predive checks from the Okeanos Explorer’s control room. Once the ROV is launched, scientists will watch the camera feeds and advise his team where to direct the vehicle.Art Howard “You’re working very closely with the mechanical engineer to fit the electronics in a really small space,” he says. “The smaller the cylinder is, the cheaper it is, but also the less mass on the vehicle. Every bit of mass means more buoyancy is required, so you want to keep things small, keep things light.” Communications are another challenge. The ROVs rely on several kilometers of cable containing just three single-mode optical fibers. “All the communication needs to come together and then go up one cable,” Unema says. “And every year new instruments consume more data.” He works exclusively on ROVs that are custom made for scientific research, which require smoother control and considerably more electronics and instrumentation than the heavier-duty vehicles used by the oil and gas industry. “The science ones are all hand-built, they’re all quirky,” he says. Unema’s role spans the full life cycle of an ROV’s design, construction, and operation. He primarily spends winters upgrading and maintaining vehicles and summers piloting them on expeditions. At GFOE, he mainly worked on two ROVs for NOAA called __Deep Discoverer__ and __Seirios__ , which operate from the ship __Okeanos Explorer__. But he has also piloted ROVs for other organizations over the years, including the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Ocean Exploration Trust. Unema’s new consultancy, Deep Exploration Solutions, has been given a contract to do the winter maintenance on the NOAA ROVs, and the firm is now on the lookout for more ROV design and upgrade work, as well as piloting jobs. ## An Engineer’s Life at Sea On expeditions, Unema is responsible for driving the robot. He follows instructions from a science team that watches the ROV’s video feed to identify things like corals, sponges, or deepwater creatures that they’d like to investigate in more detail. Sometimes he will also operate hydraulic arms to sample particularly interesting finds. In general, the missions are aimed at discovering new species and mapping the range of known ones, says Unema. “There’s a lot of the bottom of the ocean where we don’t know anything about it,” he says. “Basically every expedition there’s some new species.” This involves being at sea for weeks at a time. Unema says that life aboard ships can be challenging—many new crew members get seasick, and you spend almost a month living in close quarters with people you’ve often never met before. But he enjoys the opportunity to meet colleagues from a wide variety of backgrounds who are all deeply enthusiastic about the mission. “It’s like when you go to scout camp or summer camp,” he says. “You’re all meeting new people. Everyone’s really excited to be there. We don’t know what we’re going to find.” Unema also relishes the challenge of solving engineering problems with the limited resources available on the ship. “We’re going out to the middle of the Pacific,” he says. “Things break, and you’ve got to fix them with what you have out there.” If that sounds more exciting than daunting, and you’re interested in working with ROVs, Unema’s main advice is to talk to engineers in the field. It’s a small but friendly community, he says, so just do your research to see what opportunities are available. Some groups, such as the Ocean Exploration Trust, also operate internships for college students to help them get experience in the field. And Unema says there are very few careers quite like it. “I love it because I get to do all aspects of engineering—from idea to operations,” he says. “To be able to take something I worked on and use it in the field is really rewarding.” _This article appears in the December 2025 print issue as “Levi Unema.”_

In the latest Ocean News & Technology, Oceaneering President and CEO Rod Larson shares insights on de-risking subsea operations through resident autonomous systems.
Read more: digital.oceannews.com/october-2025...

#Oceaneering #Autonomy #ROVs #robotics

Pleased to launch our Bluesky presence — sharing our work in #nuclear, #ROVs, #robotics, #engineering, and offshore #renewables. We’ll be celebrating innovation and showcasing the collaborations driving progress across the industry.

🚀 Nuevo -Sturgeon 200 Thruster- de SEAMOR Marine, ahora disponible en Nautilus Oceánica.
Eficiente, modular y resistente: ideal para #ROVs #AUVs y #USVs.
Hasta 50 % menos consumo, integración rápida y diseño reparable.
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As a versatile research platform, #RVMBASepia helps monitor #MarineEcosystems & supports long-term stations off the coast of #Plymouth. Sepia is embracing a new era of #digital, non-invasive research—from #AUVs & #drones to #BRUVS, #sonar, #ROVs & more—advancing sustainable marine science! 🌊

Howard G. Smith MD, AM on Instagram: "Polaris Model Year 2022 - 2025 RZR Pro R and RZR Pro R4 Recreational Off-Road Vehicles Have Defective Rollover Structures These vehicles have missing or loose fa... 0 likes, 0 comments - drhowardsmithreports on April 8, 2025: "Polaris Model Year 2022 - 2025 RZR Pro R and RZR Pro R4 Recreational Off-Road Vehicles Have Defective Rollover Structures These vehicles ...

Polaris Model Year 2022 - 2025 RZR Pro R and RZR Pro R4 Recreational Off-Road Vehicles Have Defective Rollover Structures. #polaris #rovs #rollover #pillarjoints #injuries #death #recall
www.instagram.com/drhowardsmit...

It’s about more than data — it’s about people, humour, and staying human in one of the most extreme places on Earth. #Antarctica #seaice #Science #NZDF #scottbase #underice #ROVs #mapping #underwater #sked #radio #fieldwork

On new developments in #Nigeria's #upstream: theenergyyear.com/articles/the...

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"Luke McCartin is a postdoctoral research associate in Dr. Santiago Herrera’s lab at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, United States. He uses molecular tools to study the distribution of life on the deep seafloor and its evolution. At the Deep-Sea Biology Symposium, Luke will be presenting research that uses environmental DNA (eDNA) sequencing to determine the diversity and distributions of deep corals. Using submersibles like remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), Luke’s work involves collecting samples of corals and the seawater around them from the deep-sea floor for analysis. He compares sequences of DNA from the coral specimens and the eDNA that they release into seawater in order to determine the biodiversity of deep corals in the area." (Image: Luke McCartin grinning behind a laptop amongst collaborators: a number of screens with deep-sea footage are in the background. Image Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute; Photographer: Alex Ingle)

Image: A close-up of Luke McCartin smiling inside a dimly lit ROV.

"Luke’s research has been primarily focused on mesophotic and deep-sea coral communities in the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea south of Puerto Rico. Mesophotic corals, like this large colony of the black coral Plumapathes pennacea occur at depths from approximately 50 to 200 meters where light attenuates". (Image)

"Deep-sea corals, like this colony of the octocoral Paramuricea from 530 meters depth, live in perpetual darkness" (Image).

Happy day 4 of #17DSBS!

Meet Luke McCartin, who studies #DeepSeaCoral diversity using #eDNA sequencing in the Gulf of Mexico & Caribbean. Luke’s work involves using #ROVs to collect coral & seawater samples, analyzing DNA barcodes to reveal their #biodiversity and to understand coral distributions.

Vehicle Recall: #Polaris Ranger XD 1500 #ROVs [Canada]: https://wp.me/p2bVty-th4

Estimated reading time: seven (7) minutes.

#NOCIntoTheBlue is now into it's third season, where we've already discussed subjects like:

🐟 Marine life's influence on #climate
⛵ #Climatechange and sailing records
🎮 Remotely Operated Vehicles #ROVs
🚣 How rivers are tied to #ocean and #coastal health

Trailer below 📽️⬇️

Vehicle Recall: #Polaris Ranger XD 1500 and Crew XD #ROVs [US & Canada]: https://wp.me/p2bVty-soD

Estimated reading time: ten (10) minutes.

🌟Exploring the abyss with scientific precision. Discover the world beneath the waves through s

🌊🚢 Dive into the depths

#researchsubmarines #ROVs #underwaterexploration #aiartdaily #aiart #artificialintelligence #ai #newart #aiartist #dalle3 #newmedia #aiartcommunity #aiartists #digitalart #g…

Building bots beneath the water - The Martha's Vineyard T... The Great Pond Foundation held its third annual summer ST...

How many kids can say they spent their summer vacation building #ROVs and #MarineRobots! We're proud to have supported Megan Carroll in this really cool project inspiring kids! Building bots beneath the water www.mvtimes.com/2019/08/06/building-bots... via @The...