The Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (M.A.T.E.) coordinates an international student ROV competition. Student teams from middle schools, high schools, home schools, community colleges, and universities participate in the events. The video was taken from a preliminary competition held in Washington State and was attended by many local schools and colleges. I was part of the Olympic College team, (our ROV was the aqua colored vehicle), this was our first competition and we learned a lot from it. We ran into several snags along the way, one problem we encountered was a chemical reaction between our seals and a waterproofing compound applied last minuet. It was this valuable lesson in materials engineering along with many others that helped to improve our design and construction techniques for the following year and beyond.
