Texas Middle Schooler Designs Underwater Robot to Study Pond Water Quality

Caden Terence Pohlkamp, a seventh-grader at Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth, engineered a remote-operated underwater robot to assess water quality in twelve suburban retention ponds. The custom probe features a sealed hull, motorized thrusters, real-time video feed and digital sensors that record dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, turbidity and total dissolved solids at various depths. By sampling both surface water and deeper zones, Pohlkamp discovered that ponds equipped with decorative fountains or underwater aerators consistently exhibited higher dissolved-oxygen levels, which help prevent harmful algae blooms and unpleasant odors.

In contrast, ponds lacking circulation showed oxygen-poor conditions near the bottom, posing risks to fish and accelerating organic decay. His project won first place at the Fort Worth Regional Science and Engineering Fair and secured a position as one of thirty national finalists in the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, according to the Society for Science. Officials suggest his low-cost monitoring system could aid homeowners' associations, municipal water managers and engineers in tracking urban stormwater runoff. Pohlkamp plans to enhance the robot with autonomous navigation, additional chemical sensors and manipulators for sediment sampling.