Mintlaw Academy pupils win MATE Scotland ROV competition

Pupils from Mintlaw Academy have the won the MATE Scotland ROV competition held at Robert Gordon University (RGU) after impressing judges by successfully completing a series of underwater missions.

The Mintlaw ROV team are presented with their prize by Donella Beaton, RGU's Vice Principal for Business and Economic Development and Dr Ros Shanks, MATE Scotland Regional Coordinator.

The aspiring engineers were among five secondary school teams from Aberdeenshire, Dundee and Moray who faced off at RGU to put their robots through a series of underwater missions for a place in an international event in the USA.

The win by the Mintlaw ROV team means they will go on to represent Scotland and compete in the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education Center) World Championship which is scheduled to take place in Kingsport, Tennessee from 20 - 22 June.

This year, the competition mission tasks focused on protecting and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity and included observing underwater assets for data collection and administering probiotics for diseased coral.

Grove Academy (Dundee), Keith Grammar School, Peterhead Academy and Speyside High School were the other schools that entered teams with their own Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) which they built and fitted with the appropriate sensors, tools and other technology required to complete the underwater tasks.

Dr Rosslyn Shanks, MATE Scotland Regional co-ordinator from RGU’s School of Engineering, said: “The standard of this year’s competition was extremely high, and all the pupils can be proud of the ROVs they built plus their hard work in the pool and with their presentations and marketing displays.

“It has been fantastic to witness all the teams working together and it is clear there a real interest in engineering which is great for the event and also RGU’s own efforts to widen access to higher education.

“We are grateful for the industry support we have in terms of judges; including Serica Energy, Subsea7, TechnipFMC, Seaway7 & BW Offshore, as well as university colleagues, but most importantly our donors, which this year were Serica Energy, Harbour Energy and Film-Ocean. Without this financial support the competition would not run, nor could we plan for expansion to encourage more young people in STEM and so I would encourage other companies to consider supporting this fabulous MATE ROV competition.”

Ali Hynd, Depute Head Teacher at Mintlaw Academy, said: “All the staff and pupils at Mintlaw ROV are over the moon to have won the Scottish Regional heat of MATE ROV, and are so excited with a trip to Kingsport, Tennessee. This has been a two-and-a-half-year project with this group and their dreams have been realised by winning the competition. Special thanks should go to RGU for hosting the competition and all the supporters both for the competition and the followers of Mintlaw ROV. This has been an amazing year for these young people, and this tops it off.”

Keith Grammar School won the Overall Teamwork Award with Mintlaw Academy securing the Safety Award. Mintlaw Academy and Speyside High School’ s Navigator classes each took home an Encouragement for Future Development Award. Grove Academy finished first in the NAVIGATOR class competition at the event which was held on 27 March.