To learn more about Sam and Calypso, read here.

Hi everyone,

I am ringing the bell in the town square, asking my peeps to rally on behalf of a noble endeavor being pursued by a young brilliant woman in engineering.

Her name is Samantha Weckesser and she is my student at Stevens Institute of Technology. In my nine years at Stevens, she is easily one of the most impressive student collaborators. Next week she will complete her Masters in Systems Engineering after having last year completed her Bachelors in Industrial & Systems Engineering.

Last May, she and her team won the prestigious Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition. Sam is responsible for the app that will now empower historically overwhelmed Coast Guard inspectors with an advanced AI solution that identifies with startling accuracy the high danger cargo containers that arrive every day in our nation's ports. In providing this proactive solution, inspectors will catch and eliminate threats before they then move on to our nation's roads, rails.......and hometowns.

With all that said, she and I have been invited to Athens, Greece this June to present to the largest gathering of Maritime experts and professionals. The event is called Posidonia and it only runs every two years.

A successful visit to Athens will spur opportunity to get her solution in the hands of shipping companies who would then be able to pack their containers in a hazard-free manner and also assist their vessels in adhering to the necessary sustainability practices that will protect our coastline's ecosystem (not introducing dangerous elements to our existing fragile ecosystem).

She is a graduating Masters student (at an expensive school which of course means she is poor, haha) who lacks the funds to make this Posidonia event happen. I am prepared to pay for her trip (flight, hotel, food) out of my own pocket because that is how much I believe in her and her mission. But.....BUT....if my peeps can participate in this effort at whatever level you see fit, it would be a wonderful and most appreciated gesture.