Rookie Teams Score an Icy Victory

First-timers teams were the ones to beat at this summer's sixth annual international student ROV competition. In an event that highlighted the International Polar Year, the winners were participants Jesuit High School of Carmichael (CA, USA - Explorer class) and Cornerstone Academy of Gainesville (FL, USA - Ranger class).

Held at Memorial University's Marine Institute (MI) and the Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT) in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada), the competition featured forty-one teams representing schools from six countries. This is the first year that the event was held outside the U.S.

Explorer Class Winners

In the Explorer class, the Jesuit High School team's first place finish was due to its outstanding scores in the mission tasks. Jesuit team member Eric Guess was honored with the "gROVer" award for demonstrating courtesy, kindness, and professionalism and assisting other teams. Last year's champions, the Eastern Edge Robotics Team of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, took second place honors.

Ranger Class Winners

In addition to winning first place in the Ranger class, Florida regional competition winner Cornerstone Academy was also named Ranger rookie of the year and tied for the best engineering evaluation. Heritage Collegiate of Lethbridge, Newfoundland & Labrador was the second place winner and Flower Mound High School of Flower Mound, Texas took third place honors.  Flower Mound team member Luke Cragin was singled out for his talents with an engineering MVP award.   

Realistic Missions Challenged Students

For the competition, teams designed and built ROVs for operation in polar environments and researched the culture and history of human life at the poles. The world-class facilities at MI and IOT gave students the unique opportunity to experience the real-life working conditions common to polar environments.

For example, MI's flume tank is the biggest in the world. Teams completed the mission task of threading a messenger line through a sunken buoy anchor ring and returning the messenger line to the surface, under the influence of the flume tank's current.

With an air temperature of 5 degrees Celsius and water temperature of -1 degree Celsius, missions in the IOT's ice tank challenged students to design vehicles that took into account variables such as condensation and the influence of ice particles. Students collected simulated benthic jellyfish and algae samples and installed a passive acoustic sensor on the bottom of the tank, deploying their vehicles through a large hole cut into the one-inch thick sheet of ice.

Last but not least, the IOT's tow tank featured surface waves that caused students' vehicles to heave, much like a professional ROV would in heavy ocean waves. The tow tank mission tested the teams' ability to prepare a subsea oil wellhead by installing a simulated gasket and "injecting" anti-corrosive material.

The 2008 competition will be held in a dramatically different environment. Participants are more likely to see surfers than icebergs when they head to Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego next June.

Next year's contest will focus on the scientific and technological challenges of working in deep sea hydrothermal vent environments, the geologically and biologically active areas where moving tectonic plates cause hot water to erupt from the sea floor. Students will be challenged by missions that involve incorporating sensors on their ROVs.