SMITHFIELD, R.I. (AP) – The man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic will be honored by the Smithfield School Department.

Robert Ballard, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island will be given a Partnership Award for having established an outpost of his Inner Space Center at Smithfield High School.

The center allows students to interact with scientists at sea and observe oceanographic research in real time.

The school is the only in the country to be equipped with the technology.

Ballard found the bulk of the Titanic wreck in 1985, at a depth of 13,000 feet and about 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland.