Central Michigan University has a new research submersible that will be on display at a STEM-Posium event, that’s being held Monday at the Parsons-Stulen Building at the Aero Park Campus of Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City.
The new research sub will be critical to regular inspections of the Enbridge Line 5 Oil Pipeline.
The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe named it the ‘Amik Doem’, an Ojibwe term for beaver clan, in honor of its future home on Beaver Island.
Don Uzarski, Director of CMU’s Institute of Great Lakes Research, Don Uzarski said this has been a game changer.
There is an engineer in the College of Science and Engineering at CMU that has developed equipment that can actually we can mount on the submarine and actually be able to detect any flaws, any cracks in underwater pipelines, not necessarily just Line 5, but that would be pretty close to us to be able to monitor that on a regular basis,” said Uzarski.
The 13-foot sub was purchased through a federal grant and can fit two people. The vessel will eventually make its way to the CMU Biological Station on Beaver Island.
