Russian Team Determined to Reach the MATE Final

The 'Primorye Coast' team will compete with more than 20 other ones from around the world. Each team must design and build its own underwater vehicle. The team traditionally consists of students from different specialties, including computer security, medical physics, interior design. The students of the FEFU School of Natural Sciences and Engineering Schools: Andrei Sakharov, Angelina Borovskaia, Anton Shiriaev, Anton Tolstonogov, Tregubenko Dmitry, Roman Babaev, Yaroslav Volkov, Maxim Fursov and Vladislav Bolotov will represent Russia this year.

The mentors from FEFU and from Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Science made a big contribution to team building and training of students: Mun S.A., Mikhailov D.N., Shcherbatyuk A.F., Sergeenko N.S., Kostenko V.V., Goy V.A., Tufanov I.E. and  Pushkarev I.S.

The MATE Center (Marine Advanced Technology Education) has been running competitions in underwater robotics since 2002. During these 10 years MATE contributed to the development of students skills in physics, mathematics, engineering and related sciences, helping them to gain invaluable experience in the field of solutions of the real world marine technology problems. We thank members of the MATE for the huge contribution to the development of underwater robotics students: Jill Zande, Deidre Sullivan, Erica Moulton, Matt Gardner, Candiya Mann, Scott Fraser, Jeremy Hertzberg.

The competition theme changes every year by introducing new problems that participants have to solve with the help of underwater robots. This year's theme is World War II. As a result of military operations many ships sank at sea with their fuel remaining in tanks, threatening to harm the marine inhabitants. The teams will need to develop special features and methods for safe removal of the fuel without causing harm to marine life.