Competition promises to be fierce when twelve student teams from the Hawaiian Islands battle it out in an underwater robotics contest.

The teams hope to advance in the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (MATE) Regionals during the contest held at the on Saturday, May 15, 2010, at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Student Life Center Pool.

According to an event media release:

Students compete at either the ‘Ranger” level for intermediate and high school students or the “Scout” level for elementary school students. The teams deploy an ROV, or remotely operated vehicle, which the students have designed and built under guidance of a faculty or adult advisor, competing in an underwater ‘mission’.

Saturday’s regional competition is a preliminary to the June 24-26, 2010 MATE International ROV Competition, with more than 400 competitors from around the world, that will also to be held on the U H Hilo campus.

This year the competition theme focuses on the Loihi seamount, an active undersea volcano that rises more than 3,000 meters above the seafloor off the southern coast of the Big Island. In the simulation in the UHH Pool, teams will deploy instruments, take sensor readings, plot data, and collect samples of geologic features using ‘props’ to simulate these objectives. Teams score points in timed sessions, trying to accomplish as many objectives as possible.

Teams are also scored on an oral engineering evaluation, poster presentation and a detailed technical documentation.

Eleven of the 16 teams taking part are made up of intermediate or high school students competing at the Ranger level and are from:

· Earl’s Garage, Waimea, Hawaii Island

· Highlands Intermediate School, Pearl City, Oahu

· Hilo High and Hilo Intermediate

· Ke Kula o Nawahiokalaniopuu

· Keaau High School

· Kealakehe High and Intermediate

· Konawaena High School

· Waimea High School, Waimea, Kauai·

E.B. DeSilva and Kaumana are sending two and three teams, respectively, to compete at the elementary school student “Scout” level.

The public is invited to the U H Hilo upper campus to watch the competition. Parking is available near the UHH Tennis Courts near the campus gymnasium.

For Information contact Mary Ann Tsuchiyama, UHH Conference Center at 974-7555.

Sponsors for this year’s Big Island Regional include Hilo Intermediate, Hilo-Laupahoehoe-Waimea DOE Complex, W.M. Keck Observatory, Institute for Astronomy, Joint Astronomy Centre, UH Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, UH Manoa College of Engineering, IEEE Hawaii Section, Robotics Organizing Committee, Cycle Counters Inc., and Liquid Robotics.

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