MATE Center Announces Winners of 2015 International ROV Competition

Jesuit High School and AMNO & CO take top honors at international underwater robot competition

Monterey, California—Two underwater robots, known as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) – and the teams that built, designed, and operated them – rose above the rest at last month’s Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s International Student ROV Competition. Jesuit High School of Carmichael, California won first place in the Explorer (advanced) class for the third year in a row, while AMNO & CO, a home school team from Seattle, Washington, took the first-place honor in the Ranger (intermediate) class.

Fifty-six student teams from around the world participated in the event, which was held in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, at the Fisheries and Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University and the National Research Council’s (NRC) Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering facility.



Because the competition is grounded in real-world business and applications of marine technology, MATE requires teams to perform as “companies.” In keeping with the competition’s entrepreneurial focus, teams were required to successfully complete a timed product demonstration consisting of underwater tasks such as sampling organisms, deploying scientific instruments, inspecting pipelines, and testing deep-sea oilfield equipment; deliver a sales presentation to a “customer” that consisted of a panel of volunteer judges from marine and technology industries; prepare technical documentation for their ROV; and create a marketing display.



Each team is evaluated on the design, construction, and performance of its ROV; the members’ ability to communicate what they learned; and how they put their knowledge to use in developing their ROV. They competed in two classes, Explorer and Ranger, based on vehicle design and mission complexity.

Jesuit Robotics also won prizes for having the highest product demonstration score, best sales presentation, best technical documentation, and design elegance of their ROV. AMNO & CO won an award for design elegance and a special health, safety, and environmental excellence award that was created by competition sponsor Oceaneering International.

The list of the winning teams represented countries from all over the world.

Explorer Class Winners
• First place – Jesuit High School of Carmichael, California
• Second place – Memorial University of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Third place – Hong Kong University of Science & Technology of Hong Kong
• Best technical documentation – Jesuit High School
• Best marketing display – Memorial University
• Best sales presentation – Jesuit High School
• Best product demonstration – Jesuit High School

Ranger Class Winners
• First place – AMNO & CO of Seattle, Washington
• Second place – The Center for Robotics Development of Vladivostok, Russia
• Third place – Palos Verdes Institute of Technology of Palos Verdes Estates, California
• Best technical documentation – Ozaukee High School of Fredonia, Wisconsin
• Best marketing display – Highlands Intermediate/Pearl City High School of Pearl City, Hawaii
• Best sales presentation – Taipei American School of Taipei, Taiwan
• Best product demonstration – Palos Verdes Institute of Technology

The MATE Center and the Marine Technology Society’s (MTS) ROV Committee organize the MATE ROV competition, which is supported by the MTS ROV Committee, the National Science Foundation, Oceaneering International, NASA, NOAA, and other ocean- and science-related organizations. For more information, please visit www.marinetech.org.


Location: Monterey, California, USA