Young engineers from across the north-east are preparing to jet off to Canada to take their places in the final of an international robot design contest.
The final annual Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) design challenge is taking place in Newfoundland from tomorrow.
Teams from Peterhead Academy and Robert Gordon University (RGU) booked their place in the international final with a strong performance in the Scottish regional final earlier this year.
The budding engineers have designed and built their own subsea robots, capable of performing a variety of tasks, and will now compete with the best in the world.
This year’s international competition focuses on the role ROVs play in the extreme environment of the Arctic and tasks include piloting the robots under a sheet of ice.
Senior Lecturer, Graeme Dunbar, from RGU’s School of Engineering said: “The talent that we saw at the regional final in April was outstanding and it is always promising to see such a level of skill and interest at such a young age.
“The ROV competition is always a highlight of the year and focuses on developing strong teamwork connections as well as technical skills – I am sure that both the Peterhead Academy and RGU teams will take away a great deal from the experience of competing in the international final.”
Peterhead Academy team captain, Jamie Fenty, added: “As a team we are highly impressed with the changes we have made to our ROV and are all looking forward to the experience of the international competition.”
It is hoped the competition will inspire future engineers to join the oil and gas, defence, oceanology and marine renewables industries.
