HKUST Robotics Team Named Champion in Hong Kong Regional Contest of MATE International ROV Competition for 11 Years
The HKUST Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Team has been named champion in the Explorer Class of the Hong Kong Regional Contest of the MATE International ROV Competition 2023. The ROV Team, a sub-team of the HKUST Robotics Team, will represent Hong Kong to take part in the MATE International ROV Competition 2023 in Longmont, Colorado in the US on June 22-24, 2023.
Organized by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Hong Kong on April 29-30, the Hong Kong regional competition at the Tseung Kwan O Swimming Pool attracted 17 teams from secondary schools (in Ranger Class) and universities (in Explorer Class) from Hong Kong and Macau. The HKUST team participated in the ROV regional competition since 2011 and was crowned the champion for 11 years straight. The Hong Kong regional contest was cancelled in 2022 and 2020 due to the pandemic. The team was a two-time world champion in the international competition (in 2019 and 2017), becoming the first Asian team to achieve this.
The 2023 team consists of 28 undergraduates (5 female and 23 male students) from various disciplines and almost all of them are from Year 1 and Year 2.
In the competition, teams had to build underwater robots to tackle simulated real-world tasks, such as underwater photogrammetry of coral reefs, and maintenance of marine renewable energy. They also had to prepare materials to promote their ROV, including a team presentation, marketing display, technical report, and safety documentation. Performance was evaluated by judges from both engineering and business perspectives.
IET is one of the world’s largest engineering institutions, and IET Hong Kong is the largest local network outside the UK with 5,000 members in Hong Kong and Macau.
The inaugural MATE International ROV Competition was held in 2002. Headquartered in California, the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center aims to inspire and challenge students to learn and creatively apply STEM skills to solving real-world problems in a way that strengthens their critical thinking, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
