Friday Harbor ROV Teams Return with Heads Held High

On May 11th the Friday Harbor High School ROV Team (a.k.a NORD ROV) and the Friday Harbor Middle School ROV Team traveled to the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, WA for the MATE ROV Regional Competition. For the past six months these teams have been meeting on Sundays to design and construct their robots capable of performing the tasks specified in the competition’s outline. This year they were given the task of servicing and expanding ocean observing systems owned and operated by the University of Washington. The teams then compete in two fifteen minute underwater runs, trying to earn as many points as possible by completing the most mission tasks.

This year the high school team took 5th place in the Northwest region. The Middle school team exceeded expectations, taking home 3rd place in the Northwest region in their division.

In addition to creating and operating their robots, each team was required to create a poster and present their team as a company trying to sell their ROV to prospective buyers. This portion of the competition brought out the students’ inner entrepreneurs. The students created high quality posters, presented themselves well, and earned a massive amount of points in the communications portion of the competition. This competition has provided a unique outlet for students to hone their engineering and scientific skills as well as their public speaking and presentation skills.

Both teams would like to thank their mentors, David Crain and Jenny Wilson, for all of the time and effort they put into helping out with this competition. They would also like to thank the Public Schools Foundation and the Friday Harbor UW Labs for providing the teams with funding, resources, and a place to work. Also, the team would like to thank additional mentors, such as Mike Stepita and Bob Tauscher, for donating their time to helping out with the competition.

Pictured: Matthew Stepita, Maclin Fuehr-Bush, Carter Fuehr-Bush, Matthew Mazzarella, Bela Boyd, David Crain, Mike Stepita; Erich Atwell, Eric Sable, Wes Clay. Not Pictured: Yazmin Sarah, Isabella Brown, Griffin Cuomo, Tyler Ford; Jenny Wilson, Bob Tauscher, Molly Robert, Derek Smith

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