By David Karas | Correspondent

Growing up, Hope Dormer enjoyed watching Star Trek with her family. Initially drawn to one of the android characters in the popular television series, over time her interest shifted towards the programmer who created the android.

“I thought it was so incredible to be able to create a being that mimics and emulates humanity and is a mirror through which our flaws and strengths are emphasized,” she said. “I wanted to create something that existed beyond the realm of biology.”

While her first bit of intrigue into the science of robotics came at a young age, she has already made strides towards pursuing what has become a career goal.

Dormer, 16, a Bayville native and a memeber of St. Joseph Parish, Toms River, is a rising senior in Donovan Catholic High School. And this summer, she represented the Toms River high school in the New Jersey Governor’s School, hosted in July in Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

A high point of her time this summer came when she, along with four colleagues, presented their findings on the topic of “Robotic Mining of Astronomic Surfaces” during a July 24 research symposium, before an audience of parents, friends and members of the Rutgers community.

The Governor’s School of New Jersey, established in 1983, is a tuition-free summer, residential program for high-achieving high school seniors with an interest in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – fields. The Governor’s School of Engineering and Technology aims “to introduce scholars to college-level topics across engineering disciplines using both coursework and hands-on experience while researching challenging and open-ended problems with peers who share their love for engineering and technology,” according to the program’s website.

Dormer’s hands-on experience in the STEM fields began in the classroom, even before she attended Governor’s School. Soon after learning of her acceptance, she enrolled in a series of elective courses - including Game Design, a course which challenged students to develop a game using a design platform.

“My game, which I developed using the website Scratch, was a math game geared toward younger children to teach kids math skills like addition, subtraction, and arithmetic with fractions,” she said.

So, when she began her time in Governor’s School, Dormer was drawn to a research project that related to her interest in robotics and galactic exploration – dovetailing with her childhood fascination with the Star Trek series.

“The project involved designing a robot that would theoretically be able to mine an astronomic surface for resources since other celestial bodies can have supplies of resources that are rare on Earth,” she said.

During their four-week session, Dormer and her cohort researched various astronomic bodies that they could devise a robot to mine, using a decision matrix that led to their choice of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.

“One of the most abundant resources on Titan is methane, so we decided that that would be the resource we would want to mine,” she said. They then moved on to select a robot design that they could create using their Lego Mindstorms Ev3 robotic kits, running various speed and maneuverability tests to determine which model would be most appropriate. In addition to assembling their custom robot, the team wrote a research paper and prepared a presentation for their symposium.

The experience, she said, was transformative.

“I had never been involved in such a wonderful program that immersed me in STEM subjects and gave me an amazing opportunity to be a part of a research project,” she reflected. “Not only was I academically challenged, I also got the chance to meet some of the most incredible, accomplished, funny people…and make incredible memories I’ll remember for a lifetime.”

She added, “Plus, I got to build robots for weeks, which was so cool.”

Kathleen D’Andrea, vice principal of Donovan Catholic, added her own praise of Dormer’s accomplishments.

“Ever since her freshman year, Hope has been immersed in technology and engineering,” she said. “When I visited her at Rutgers, I could see the pride and ownership she took in creating this robot that developed after several unsuccessful models.”

Following her graduation from Donovan Catholic, Dormer plans to pursue a degree in computer science, potentially with a second major in astrophysics or robotics.

“I hope to one day work on artificial intelligence research, possibly in concurrence with interstellar exploration,” she said.