Fabien Cousteau calls Grace Young, 22, a rock star. The 
ocean explorer first met the prodigy at a 2013 _Glamour _magazine luncheon where 
she was being honored as a College Woman of the Year.
 The MIT graduate and current Oxford University marine robotics Ph.D. candidate had already helped create a machine that generated 3-D maps of Antarctic ice formations, used to better predict weather and climate change.

For NOAA, Young helped design a BotCam, aka robotic camera, to monitor no-fishing zones. Her packed resume — including being an accomplished diver — piqued the interest of Cousteau, who invited her to suit up for Mission 31, his 31-day experiment at the Aquarius habitat in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Q: What was your favorite innovation of Mission 31?

A: Another engineer built a brand-new, high-speed video camera capable of filming 18,000 frames a second. By comparison, your iPhone takes 30 frames a second, or 120 
in the slo-mo setting. The 
previous version of this technology cost $100,000.
The new camera costs 
$5,000, which is affordable to oceanic research.
 We were able to capture a 
mantis shrimp feeding on 
a goby, which happens in
 the blink of an eye.

Q: What would readers find surprising about Mission 31?

A: Every night before going to bed, we planned each half-hour of the coming day in terms of what we wanted to accomplish. That facility costs $10,000 a day to operate, so you can’t waste any time.

Q: What’s the biggest misconception about your work?

A When I tell people what I do, they always think of humanoid robots, but then they see pictures. I make propulsion units, most of which are barrel-shaped. The other misconception is that people think robots will have all the fun for us, but I don’t think so. There will always be a place for manned exploration.

To learn more about Grace Young's work, visit graceunderthesea.com.