Semifinalists named in $7M Shell Ocean Discovery XPrize

The XPrize Foundation has named 21 semifinalists for its $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPrize contest to advance technologies for deep water exploration, including San Diego's Orca Robotics. The semifinalists were announced at the Catch the Next Wave conference in San Diego on Thursday, with teams from 13 countries making the cut. Several teams affiliated with U.S. universities are among the semifinalists, including Duke, Rutgers, Texas A&M, Lehigh University, Virginia Tech and Old Dominion. "These semifinalist teams are on the cutting-edge, pushing the boundaries in developing deep-sea underwater technologies that will work in the lightless, cold depths to fully map one of our world's final frontiers like never before," said Jyotika Virmani, who is overseeing the contest as head of XPrize's Energy and Environment Group. Teams have tapped technologies ranging from underwater gliders to robotic swarms and autonomous vehicles.