COMPETITION RULES
GENERAL
All members of the company and their supporters must follow the safety regulations of the ROV competition, pool facility, and event venue.
All company members and their supporters are expected to conduct themselves in a professional and responsible manner during the competition. Disrespectful behavior towards the judges, officials, pool staff, audience, or other companies will lead to penalty points or disqualification.
Sabotaging, stealing, or pilfering equipment of other companies will lead to disqualification. Companies found cheating will also be disqualified.
The MATE ROV competition is, at its core, designed to be an educational and inspirational event for STUDENTS. It is designed to challenge them to apply the physics, math, electronics, and engineering skills they are learning in the classroom to solving practical problems from the marine workplace. (See the MATE Competition Philosophy.) It is expected that all “adults” (non-students; e.g. teachers, mentors, parents) involved in the competition limit their input to educational and inspirational roles.
Actual construction of the ROV (particularly in the complex electrical and software areas) must be completed by the students. Adults should teach and advise students about design, electronics, software, and construction, but not complete the work for the students. Throughout the process adults are encouraged to focus on benefits to the students from the process and not simply winning. If it becomes apparent that adults exercised more than an advisory role, judges reserve the right to deduct points or, in extreme cases, disqualify companies from the competition.
ALL work done on the vehicle must be conducted by company members. This includes any work done at home, at school, or during the MATE ROV competition. Teachers, mentors, parents, and noncompeting students are not permitted to work on the ROVs. They may provide advisory input, but they may not work on the ROV directly. This includes writing or editing software code. All mechanical, electrical, and software modifications and/or repairs to the ROV must be completed by students. With learning at its core, the MATE competition encourages students to utilize and build upon their skill sets to find creative solutions to designing and building their ROV. Students gain valuable skills and knowledge when creating a component from “scratch,” which is apparent to judges as they review the technical documentation and engineering presentation. However, as they move through the process of analyzing their designs and identifying building materials, students may decide to either build a component from “scratch” or purchase it from a commercial vendor.
*** So, while original solutions are encouraged, the use of commercial components is acceptable, provided
1) that the components adhere to the design and building as well as safety specifications for the particular competition class and
2) more importantly, that the students can provide a reasonable, logical explanation for buying versus building. The competition scoring rubrics are designed to reflect this; points are awarded based on students’ abilities to explain and justify how all of the components and systems work together as an integrated ROV, regardless if they purchased them, pulled them from public libraries, or made them themselves.
***Note “commercial vendor” includes the SeaMATE store and other competition programs that sell educational robotics kits. SeaMATE kits were created to remove barriers to participation for teachers and schools unable to easily 1) find parts and materials and 2) set up accounts with multiple vendors. The kits are part of a larger educational package offered by SeaMATE that includes curriculum materials, videos, and other resources to support and enhance learning. And learning is what students who use SeaMATE (or other) kits will be expected to demonstrate during and through the ENGINEERING & COMMUNICATION components. It should be noted that purchasing and competing with complete, assembled, commercial ROVs is not permitted.