Note: Hope Athletics is profiling student-athletes from all 22 of its varsity sports throughout the 2015-16 school year and highlighting their pursuits and achievements in the classroom. Seven stories will be shared during NCAA Division III Week from April 4-10.
By Alan Babbitt
Hope College basketball player Sam Otto is working on a team off the court as well.
The senior engineering major from Wheaton, Illinois (Wheaton HS) is helping to bring an underwater drone to commercial market as part of his senior design class.
Otto is a member of Fathom©, a company with aspirations of producing underwater drones for the general public, including filmmakers and researchers, Otto said.
"We have a functional prototype. We have some people we are going to sell it to," Otto said "We're just testing it to make sure it moves exactly the way we want. The next steps are solidifying everything, see how we can market it and the best possible way to mass produce it."
Otto is one of five mechanical engineers from Hope working on the project along with Fathom founder John Boss of Charlevoix, Michigan (Charlevoix HS), Alexandria LeGare of St. Charles, Illinois (St. Charles North HS) and Evan Surinck of Rochester Hills, Michigan (Rochester HS).
They are joined by two electrical engineers from Hope: Ryan Backman of Oro Valley, Arizona (Ironwood Ridge HS) and Chris Seto of Chelsea, Michigan (Chelsea HS).
Boss worked on the project for a year before Otto joined.
"We learned from his mistakes, made something completely new," Otto said. "It's nice to see what we do come to fruition. Making this project has been awesome."
Last summer, Fathom received a $20,000 grant from the nonprofit Emerge West Michigan in Grand Rapids, Boss said.
Boss is thrilled with how the project took after he made a senior design project proposal to Roger Veldman, chairperson of Hope's engineering department.
"We thought what can do to push this idea even faster," Boss said. "Five other students jumped on the team. Sam was one of them. I knew I wanted Sam on the team. He really works well with a group whether it is for a basketball team or something else. He just knows how to pull his weight. It's been a blast working with Sam."
Hope men's basketball coach Greg Mitchell is proud of Otto for his work on the Fathom drone.
"When he first told me about it, I was just so impressed with the complexity of it, the innovative side of it," Mitchell said. "It was neat to see how enthusiastic he was about it. It's a lot of labor and extra time. With anything like that, enthusiasm is what really drives them.
"Sam is a very motivated Hope College student-athlete."
Otto is grateful for the education he's received at Hope College that helped prepare him for the opportunity to join the Fathom team and bring an underwater drone to commercial market.
Being an engineering major taught Otto to become a problem solver, he said.
"With all those problems we run into, you've got to find your way past them," Otto said. "With all the homework, tests and all these classes, I have confidence to see the problems and get past them."
Being a basketball player also made an impact on Otto's engineering pursuits, he said.
"With basketball, there are so many ups and downs, you have to figure it out when you're kind of stumped, Otto said. "Just the way I've trained through engineering and basketball, I pretty much come up with a way to get past these problems and move forward with things."
