Faith Brooks, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, had a clear dream of becoming a pilot since she was four years old.
“When I was about 8 years old, a neighbor found out I wanted to fly and showed me a picture of her dad landing a jet on an aircraft carrier, and I was instantly hooked,” Brooks says. Plus, with a lifelong passion for aviation, inspired by her grandfather’s experience in the United States Navy (USN), she knew nothing could stop her.
Brooks said he explored different paths to becoming a pilot, but a conversation with his longtime mentor, Capt. Matt Scone, U.S. Navy (retired), changed the trajectory of his life.
“He asked me if I had heard of the Naval Academy,” she recalled, “I had no idea at the time… I immediately knew that was where I wanted to go, and everything else I learned about the United States Naval Academy (USNA) just solidified that decision for me.”
During her “first” (senior) year at USNA, Brooks was selected to go to Pensacola, Florida, to train as a Naval Aviator Cadet to become a naval aviator, bringing her one step closer to her dream. USNA also helped her decide on her path to MIT. Her journey to the MIT-WHOI joint program began with the USNA Professional Knowledge Curriculum, where she read about retired Capt. Wendy Lawrence SM ’88, a naval aviator and astronaut.
“After reading her biography, I started looking into the program and it seemed like the perfect program for me. Where else could I get a better ocean engineering education than MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)?”
Brooks is a member of the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Research on the Impact of Coastal Pond Bursts on the Prevention and Mitigation of Harmful Algal Blooms. Her research focuses on the biennial mechanical drainage of Sesachacha Pond on Nantucket Island to the ocean and its impact on the pond’s water quality. The effort is intended to improve water quality and suppress harmful algal blooms (HABs), especially during the summer months.
Dumping into coastal ponds is a process originally used to increase salinity in herring and shellfish habitats, but has since been adapted to address water quality issues. Traditionally, excavators create fissures in the ponds, which close naturally within one to five days, influenced by sediment transport and weather conditions. Wind and high waves can accelerate sediment movement, limiting seawater exchange and promoting eutrophication, where excess nutrients lead to vegetation overgrowth and oxygen depletion. In brackish water environments, harmful algal blooms are often caused by high nitrogen concentrations and high temperatures, and higher nitrogen concentrations make algal blooms more frequent and severe as temperatures increase.
Nantucket’s Natural Resources Department (NRD) is working with local homeowners to investigate the pond breach. Available data is primarily anecdotal evidence and monthly sampling by NRD from 2022 onwards, which does not show the expected reduction in eutrophication. Brooks’ study will focus on data from before, during and after the water level rises at the two ponds to evaluate the effectiveness of the water quality changes in improving water quality.
When Brooks isn’t knee-deep in the waters of the Sessa Chacha River or training with the MIT Triathlon Team, he’s taking advantage of opportunities to further his education. Last year, Brooks attended the MIT-Portugal Marine Robotics Summer School on the island of Faial in the Azores, Portugal, where he was engrossed in hands-on design projects and lectures on a variety of topics related to oceanography, engineering, and marine robotics.
“What I like most about the program is its interdisciplinary nature. “We have mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, marine biologists and oceanographers, and we have teams that cover each of their fields,” she said. “Our projects include designing a landing craft with an underwater camera connected to a buoy to transmit footage. I’d previously worked primarily in engineering teams, so working in a more diverse team was a great experience and gave me a better understanding of how to design equipment and systems to meet the needs of marine biologists.”
Brooks is also earning her Part 107 small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) license to operate a research drone equipped with a multispectral camera for future field work. Upon graduation from the MIT-WHOI joint program next September, she will report to the Naval Aviation School Command in Pensacola, Florida, to begin flight training.
While Brooks says she will miss the charm and history of Boston, and the cool fall days of Woods Hole’s Shining Sea Bike Trail, she is looking forward to putting on the uniform again and beginning her Navy career and flight school. Brooks’ experience at MIT will help her in her future endeavors. She advises those interested in a similar path to focus their studies on the areas that interest them.
“The biggest lesson I learned from both papers is that any research project changes over time, and it’s often a good thing to take a step back and think about how your work fits into the bigger picture,” she says. “I wouldn’t recommend doing more research. This is a fantastic opportunity to dig deeper into something you’re interested in, and it can be very rewarding.”
