Small Coast Guard, big opportunities. While the Coast Guard may be the smallest of the service academies, it offers cadets large-scale experiences. Taking home the runner-up place for “Best Presentation” at this year’s Jean Bartik Computing Symposium is just one example.
First Class Cadet Lauren Oakes represented the Academy at the Symposium and presented a created system of four cameras hardwired on the waterfront and capable of object detection to locate vessels and estimate their latitude and longitude in real-time. She specifically developed the system’s capability to estimate the vessels’ locations. Her presentation made a splash at the event.
“The best part of the experience was being able to demonstrate that the Coast Guard Academy has a place at the table alongside the other academies in terms of education and research opportunities,” said Oakes. “There is nothing to prevent the Coast Guard from developing state-of-the-art technology and bringing valuable new tools to the fleet.”
This opportunity helped Oakes see what potential the future of technology has on the Coast Guard. As she gets ready to graduate and become a commissioned officer in the fleet, she approaches her role with an exponentially greater understanding of cutting-edge technology and the Coast Guard.
“I now see the potential of leveraging new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, and that there’s no limit to the opportunities in these fields to work with other services,” said Oakes.
Oakes will be a Student Engineer on USCG Kimball out of Honolulu, Hawaii upon graduation.
