Rugged connector and component manufacturer Bulgin has announced its involvement in the 18th annual MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) International ROV competition taking place this month. Bulgin will be sponsoring the finals, which will be held from June 20-22, at the Kingsport Aquatic Center and MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Bulgin will also be offering free engineering support and samples to school students from all over the world taking part in the event. The task theme set for the participating students this year is “ensuring public safety, maintaining healthy waterways and preserving historical artifacts”.
Some of the world’s brightest young minds will shortly be arriving in Tennessee to show what the remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) they designed and built can do underwater. Competitors will be tasked with operating their ROVs in the simulated freshwater environments of Boone Lake, Boone Dam and the South Fork Holston River, all located in and around Kingsport, TN.
Students of four categories spanning K-12, community colleges and universities (EXPLORER, RANGER, NAVIGATOR, and SCOUT), must show how they apply the math, electronics, engineering and physics skills they have learned from the classroom toward solving real-life problems. The students will organise themselves into mock companies to design, build and test underwater robots to complete simulated real-world missions to ensure public safety and healthy waterways. Their tasks will include inspecting and repairing a hydroelectric dam; monitoring water quality, determining habitat diversity and restoring fish habitat; and recovering a Civil War era cannon while marking the location of unexploded cannon shells.
“Bulgin are delighted to be sponsoring the MATE 2019 International ROV competition, because innovation is at the heart of what we do,” said Bulgin’s global marketing manager, Luke Hulley. “The MATE International ROV competition inspires and encourages students from around the world, and having seen previous teams entries using Bulgin components on their projects we were keen to be involved further and get the chance to support the engineers of tomorrow who are taking part in the competition.”
For more information, please visit https://www.marinetech.org/rov-competition-2/