Hands On

WHOI engineer Loral O’Hara, who is working with a team to upgrade the deep-sea submersible Alvin, uses a three-dimensional software design program to plan the arrangement of the vehicle’s pressure housings. The titanium bottles contain the electronics that control power and data distribution for several vehicle systems, including propulsion, cameras, and lighting. O’Hara, who has been at WHOI since 2009, said she enjoys the limitless possibilities of ocean engineering. “It’s a very hands-on field,” she said. “I love being able to design something and then go out and test it.”(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)