Tag Archives: remotely operated vehicle

Students to compete in underwater robotics contest in Lincoln City April 20

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4-17-19

By Tiffany Woods

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. – About 150 students in Oregon and Washington from elementary school through college will compete in Lincoln City on April 20 in an underwater robotics contest that tests their engineering and problem-solving skills.

A student-operated robot performs a task as part of a Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle competition. Oregon Sea Grant coordinates the annual event.

A student-operated robot performs a task as part of the 2017 MATE ROV competition. Oregon Sea Grant coordinates the annual event. (Photo by Justin Smith)

The 27 teams, which hail from 13 schools or organizations in 14 towns, will be showing off the remotely operated vehicles – or ROVs – they built for the annual MATE Oregon Regional ROV competition. The event is funded by Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Coast STEM Hub and aims to prepare students for technical careers.

The public is invited to attend the contest, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the swimming pool and gym at the Lincoln City Community Center at 2150 N.E. Oar Place.

The Oregon teams come from Albany, Astoria, Beaverton, Corvallis, Lincoln City, Newport, The Dalles, Tigard, Tillamook, Toledo and Warrenton. The Washington teams are from White Salmon. The college students are from Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College. Teams are divided into four categories based on skill and grade level.

The event is one of 38 regional contests around the world that are coordinated by the California-based Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center. The top high school and college teams will qualify to compete in the MATE International ROV Competition, which will be held June 20-22 in Kingsport, Tenn.

Students are tasked with creating mock companies, building a robot for a hypothetical client, and thinking like entrepreneurs to market their products. They gain project management and communication skills as they manage a budget, work as a team, brainstorm solutions and deliver presentations.

A student operates an ROV at the 2017 competition.

A student operates an ROV at the 2017 competition. (Photo by Daniel Cespedes)

Each year a new theme is chosen. This year’s contest highlights the role of ROVs in ensuring public safety, maintaining healthy waterways and preserving historical artifacts. The students must guide their devices through tasks that simulate inspecting and repairing a mock hydroelectric dam, monitoring water quality, restoring habitat for fish and recovering a hypothetical cannon from the Civil War. The latter task is only for the upper two levels. Students will also present marketing displays they created and give presentations to judges about how they built their device.

The judges and volunteer divers come from Oregon State University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The MATE Center, the Marine Technology Society, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, and The Sexton Corporation also support the competition.

The contest is one of many events offered by the Oregon Coast STEM Hub and Oregon Sea Grant to develop Oregon’s future workforce by helping students increase their competency in science, technology, engineering and math.

More information:

Beaverton students qualify for international underwater robotics contest in Washington

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5-2-18

by Tracy Crews and Tiffany Woods

BEAVERTON, Ore. – Students from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton have qualified for an international underwater robotics competition in Washington after placing first at a similar regional contest in Lincoln City that tested their engineering and problem-solving skills.

A team of students demonstrates their entry in the Oregon Regional MATE ROV competition on April 28 at the Lincoln City Community Center.

A team of students demonstrates their entry in the Oregon Regional MATE ROV competition on April 28 at the Lincoln City Community Center. (Photo by Cait Goodwin)

The team, called Valor Maritime International, was one of 40 teams from Oregon and southern Washington that participated in the 7th annual Oregon Regional Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle competition on April 28 at the Lincoln City Community Center. In the pool, students from elementary school through high school demonstrated devices they built for the competition, which aims to prepare students for careers involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Oregon teams hailed from Port Orford, Brookings, Gold Beach, Coos Bay, Toledo, Newport, Lincoln City, Tigard, Warrenton, Beaverton, The Dalles, Florence, Tillamook and Aloha. Four Washington teams came from White Salmon and Ridgefield.

The competition, which was coordinated by Oregon Sea Grant and sponsored by the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, was divided into several categories based on skill and grade level. Students placing first in the Ranger category advanced to the 17th annual international competition, which will be held June 21-23 at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Students watch their entry's progress in the MATE ROV competition.

Students watch their entry’s progress in the MATE ROV competition. (Photo by Tracy Crews)

The competition in Lincoln City was one of 31 regional contests held around the world that are supported by the California-based Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center.

Each year a new theme is chosen. This year’s theme highlights the role remotely operated vehicles – or ROVs – play in the Pacific Northwest, with a focus on archaeology, seismology and renewable energy. Teams were tasked with building an underwater robot that could locate and retrieve the hypothetical wreckage of a downed airplane, deploy hypothetical equipment to monitor earthquakes, and install simulated renewable energy devices. Students also formed mock companies, gave presentations and created plans to manufacture, market and sell their devices.

Additional support for the regional event came from: Oregon State University, the MATE Center, the Marine Technology Society, and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. More than 50 volunteers served as divers and scorekeepers as well as judges, who evaluated the robots, posters and engineering presentations.

The First Place Ranger team, "Valor Maritime International," from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton, Oregon, is headed for the international MATE ROV competition in Washington on June 21-23.

The First Place Ranger team, “Valor Maritime International,” from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton, Oregon, is headed for the international MATE ROV competition in Washington on June 21-23. (Photo by R. McDonald)

Winners of the competition in Oregon are:

RANGER CLASS (advanced level, 1st place finisher advances to international competition)
1st Place — Valor Maritime International from Valor Christian School International
2nd Place — Laveer Enterprise from Life Christian School in Aloha
3rd Place — Knight Marine from Valor Christian School International

NAVIGATOR CLASS (intermediate level, participates only in regional competition)
1st Place — ROV Sharks from Wasco County 4-H in The Dalles
2nd Place — JJICE from Siuslaw High School in Florence
3rd Place — Waterlogged from Tillamook High School

SCOUT CLASS (novice level, participates only in regional competition)
1st Place — Water Warriors from Warrenton Grade School
2nd Place — Water Whisperers from Warrenton Middle School
3rd Place — Valient Technologies from Valor Christian School International

The STEMinists from Wallace and Priscilla Stevenson Intermediate School in White Salmon won an award for team spirit.

A video of the 2017 competition in Oregon is on Oregon Sea Grant’s YouTube channel.

You can view photos of the 2018 competition in Oregon online.

New video shows how underwater robotics contest prepares kids for technical jobs

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July 25, 2017

A new video shows how Oregon students are preparing for technical careers by building underwater robots for an annual competition in which they demonstrate their skills in front of engineers and scientists.

Contestants in MATE ROV competition learn engineering and problem solving skills. (photo by Daniel Cespedes)

The video, which was produced by Oregon State University with funding from Oregon Sea Grant, was filmed during the 2017 Oregon Regional MATE ROV Competition, which Oregon Sea Grant coordinates. It is one of about 30 regional contests around the world in which students qualify for an annual international competition.

Contestants operate their underwater devices remotely, and sometimes with a video monitor. (photo by Daniel Cespedes)

“Our goal is to really get students interested in science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — and connect them with marine technicians and engineers and marine scientists that utilize remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs,” Tracy Crews, the manager of Oregon Sea Grant’s marine education program, said in the video.

Contestants often have to troubleshoot in real time. (photo by Daniel Cespedes)

Thirty-one teams from Oregon participated in this year’s competition, which was held in April at the pool at the Lincoln City Community Center. More than 200 students from elementary school through college demonstrated devices they built.

“For students who struggle with conventional school, it’s a chance for them to really shine,” Melissa Steinman, a teacher at Waldport High School, said in the video.

A new theme is chosen each year. This year’s theme highlighted the role of remotely operated vehicles in monitoring the environment and supporting industries in port cities. Like port managers and marine researchers, the students guided their robots through tasks that simulated identifying cargo containers that fell overboard, repairing equipment, and taking samples of hypothetically contaminated sediment and shellfish. Students also presented marketing materials they created and gave engineering presentations.

“A couple of teams, they just nailed it,” Ken Sexton, one of the judges and owner of The Sexton Corp., said in the video.

Students were also tasked with creating mock companies, thinking like entrepreneurs and working together to “manufacture, market, and sell” their robots. The students gained project management and communication skills as they managed a budget, worked as a team, brainstormed solutions and delivered presentations.

“Some of my team members are really, really good at programming, now,” Natalie DeWitt, a senior at Newport High School, said in the video. “And we have one kid who is really good at using CAD software design, now. And they actually had internships over the summer … those experiences we had in robotics gave us qualifications for jobs that we wouldn’t have had before.”

“It’s really good problem-solving, teamwork, just everything all together. It really helps … you have better skills for the future,” said Kyle Brown, a junior at Bandon High School.

Photos from the 2017 contest in Oregon are on Oregon Sea Grant’s Flickr page at c.kr/s/aHskYZdMiF

Volunteer scuba divers helped out at Oregon’s 6th annual Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle competition at the pool at the Lincoln City Community Center. (photo by Daniel Cespedes)

Newport HS students qualify for international underwater robotics contest

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Students from Newport High School have qualified for an international underwater robotics competition in California after placing first at a similar contest in Lincoln City that tested their engineering and problem-solving skills.

“The Finnovators” were one of 31 teams from Oregon that participated in the state’s 6th annual Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle competition on April 29 at the pool at the Lincoln City Community Center. More than 200 students from elementary school through college demonstrated devices they built for the competition, which aims to prepare students for technical careers.

Teams hailed from Astoria, Warrenton, Tillamook, Lincoln City, Newport, Toledo, Eddyville, Waldport, Florence, Bandon, Albany, Aloha, Tigard, Beaverton and The Dalles.

The competition, which was coordinated by Oregon Sea Grant and sponsored by the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, was divided into four categories based on skill and grade level. Only two of the categories, Ranger and Explorer, allowed students to advance to the 16th annual international competition, which will be held June 23-25 in Long Beach, Calif., and will feature the top 60 teams from around the globe, including ones from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Russia.

“The Finnovators” were in the Ranger level, which requires students to perform all tasks without looking in the pool and instead rely only on the sensors and cameras on their robot. Although they are not required to compete in the regional competition, two Explorer-level teams from Linn-Benton Community College and Clatsop Community College demonstrated their robots. They, along with another Explorer team from Oregon State University, are working on fulfilling requirements to qualify for the international competition.

The Oregon event is one of 30 regional contests around the world that are coordinated by the California-based Marine Advanced Technology Education Center.

Each year a new theme is chosen. This year’s theme highlights the role of remotely operated vehicles – or ROVs – in monitoring the environment and supporting industries in port cities. Like port managers and marine researchers, the students at the Lincoln City contest guided their robots through tasks that simulated identifying cargo containers that fell overboard, repairing equipment, and taking samples of hypothetically contaminated sediment and shellfish. Students also presented marketing materials they created and gave engineering presentations.

Additional support for the event came from the MATE Center, the Marine Technology Society, the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Oregon State University, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Georgia-Pacific Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. More than 50 volunteers from these and other organizations ran the competition and served as judges and divers.

Photos of the competition can be downloaded from Oregon Sea Grant’s Flickr page.

Read more about the event in the Newport News Times.

Winners of the Oregon competition are:
RANGER CLASS (intermediate level, 1st place finisher advances to international competition)

1st Place – The Finnovators from Newport High School in Newport

2nd Place – Knight Marine from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton

3rd Place – R.U.W.E. from Taft High School in Lincoln City

NAVIGATOR CLASS (intermediate level, participates only in regional competition)

1st Place – Laveer Enterprise from Life Christian School in Aloha

2nd Place – EROV from Taft High School in Lincoln City

3rd Place – ROV Sharks from Wasco County 4-H in The Dalles

SCOUT CLASS (novice level, participates only in regional competition)

1st Place – Valor Tech from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton

2nd Place – Jet Sky from Siuslaw High School in Florence

3rd Place – Water Warriors from Warrenton Grade School in Warrenton

ADDITIONAL AWARD

Team Spirit Award – Water Warriors from Warrenton Grade School in Warrenton