On Saturday April 28, 2007, NOAA’s Thunder BayNational Marine Sanctuary hosted the 3rd annual Great Lakes Regional MATE Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition at the Plaza Pool in Alpena, Michigan.

Eleven junior high and high school teams from all over Michigan competed.  Each team was tasked with building an ROV designed to complete specific underwater challenges developed by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center based in Monterey, California.
Mission tasks for 2007 simulated real world scenarios related to the International Polar Year. Underwater missions included threading a messenger line through an anchor at the bottom of the pool, working with an underwater wellhead, extracting a benthic jellyfish from the pool bottom, deploying an acoustic sensor, and, recovering a sample of algae from under an ice sheet. Each team spent several months designing, building, waterproofing, and testing their robots to complete these missions.
In addition to being judged how their ROV’s performed in the pool, teams were scored on evaluations from a panel of engineering professionals and completed a poster display to showcase their project. The teams impressed the volunteers and judges with their team work, innovation, creativity, knowledge and spirit throughout the day.
This year the Great Lakes ROV Team from the Great Lakes Homeschool Group out of Wolverine, Michigan came away with the win.  They will go on to represent the Great Lakes region at the MATE International ROV Competition taking place in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada June 22-24, 2007. Second place went to Physics-3 from Traverse City Central High School, Traverse City, Michigan and 3rd place went to Alpena’s own high school team Great Lakes Underwater Vehicle (GLUV).
The Great Lakes Regional has more than tripled in size since last year, with over 100 students, teachers, mentors, volunteers, family and friends in attendance at the event.  Volunteers Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, NOAA, SeaGrant, and many other professionals and organizations judged water missions, conducted engineering reviews, reviewed poster displays and assisted with many other facets of the competition.
The Great Lakes Regional ROV Competition is coordinated by Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. If you know of any junior high or high school teachers or students that may be interested in learning more about building ROVs and participating in the competition, please pass on the contact information listed below.  For more information, please contact us.
Cathy Green
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Cathy.Green@noaa.gov or (989) 356-8805

Other Awards for 2007 ROV Competition