The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) ROV Competition is an annual competition of High School and undergraduate college teams to design an underwater ROV and complete a simulated mission using their ROV in a controlled environment (think swimming pool). This year the mission (pdf) was to deploy an ROV to a hydrothermal vent system at a depth of 2500m and recover an instrument package buried in sediment and lava (2lb soft dive weights) by recent volcanic eruptions, collect three lava samples and take temperature readings from a vent outflow (PVC pipe with hot water flowing out).
There were regional and national qualifying competitions leading up to the final competition at UCSD. In the New England regional competition the New York City Home Educators Association (NYCHEA) came in close second to Blue Hills Technical High School of Canton Mass., in the 12volt powered Ranger class (as reported in the June 2008 Marine Technology Reporter article). Both teams advanced to the UCSD international finals where the NYCHEA team walked away with a hotly contested Ranger class. Only 10.4 points separated NYCHEA’s winning score of 386.8 points and the fifth place finisher; less than 2 points separated NYCHEA and the second place Edgewater High School team from Florida.
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