Lydia Sgouros joined BIOS in August 2020 as a Marine Science Technician aboard R/V Atlantic Explorer. She grew up with her feet in the salt water of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, but has spent the last four years in Ohio at Case Western Reserve University, where she received a BS in Mechanical Engineering. At Case, she worked in the school's machine shop, training people on different machines and welding, as well as maintaining the equipment and completing special projects. Additionally, she did robotics-related research and worked on the design of a robot for a new challenge each year as part of a robotics competition team. She interned in an acoustics group at NASA Glenn and two Naval research labs. In her junior year, she and other students started a ROV team for the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education center) ROV competition, designing and building an underwater vehicle. Spring semester 2020, Lydia ran away to sea with a MATE internship aboard R/V Endeavor, crossing the Atlantic at 5N.
She joined BIOS shortly after and finished up her BS from the waters off Bermuda. Before this position, her best commute was her high school commute to an engineering company via kayak. It seemed doubtful that there could ever be better, but she is happy to have found a position that eclipsed that.