KINGSTON, R.I. — Nov. 2, 2026 — The University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) has launched Explore GSO, a free multimedia app that lets anyone tour the school’s campus, research facilities, and history from anywhere in the world.

Located on 153 acres overlooking Narragansett Bay, URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus is home to GSO, the URI Department of Ocean Engineering, and other marine programs and organizations. Explore GSO brings the campus to a wider audience through two tours: one showcasing today’s research and the people behind it, and another tracing the history of the school and the land it occupies.

Because the Bay Campus sits at the far end of South Ferry Road in Narragansett, few people will ever stumble upon it. And for prospective students or ocean science enthusiasts who live far away, visiting GSO in person might not be an option. The app brings the school to them.

Explore GSO highlights the campus with descriptions, photos, audio recordings, and videos of the latest marine research and the people leading it. The app also traces the school’s history and that of the land it occupies, including the early steps that led to an oceanography school at URI through its continued growth today.

The app highlights some of the campus’s lesser-known features including its use as a World War II prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers, the collection of 66,000 volumes on ocean and coastal research in the Pell Marine Science Laboratory, and Studio Blue, GSO’s own art gallery.

Visitors on the Narragansett Bay Campus can also follow self-guided routes to see highlighted locations in person. The campus continues to evolve. The Ocean Robotics Laboratory recently opened, and the new Ocean Frontiers and Ocean Engineering buildings are under construction. Explore GSO will be updated over time to reflect these changes. The Explore GSOapp is available free on the web and can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play