April 16, 2019 - The engineers of the future will go head to head at Robert Gordon University (RGU) on Wednesday April 17 when they put underwater robots, which they have designed and built, to the test as part of an annual competition.
The Scottish MATE ROV competition, coordinated and hosted by RGU, will see 11 school teams from around the country face off as they put their robots through a series of underwater missions for a place in the international final.
This year the pupils have been tasked with ‘Innovations for Inshore’, where they will use their Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to inspect and repair a mockup dam, monitor water quality and recover a submerged historical artefact.
The major STEM initiative aims to inspire future engineers through hands-on experience of designing (ROVs) used underwater in the oil and gas, defence, oceanology and marine renewables industries.
It is one of 24 regional heats held around the world by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Centre in California and will see the winning school team travel to compete in this year’s international final which will be held at Kingsport, Tennessee.
RGU engineering lecturer and competition co-ordinator, Graeme Dunbar, said: “We are very much looking forward to this year’s competition and can’t wait to see how the students have responded to the brief set out by MATE.
To date, Scottish MATE ROV has worked with more than 500 pupils from over 40 schools over the past 10 years.
