The MATE ROV Competition uses remotely operated vehicles (a.k.a. underwater robots) to inspire and challenge students to learn and creatively apply science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to solve real-world problems and strengthen their critical thinking, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and innovation. 

The MATE ROV Competition challenges students from across the U.S. and around the world to engineer ROVs to complete a set of mission tasks based on real-world, workplace scenarios. The competition emphasizes and inspires a mindset of entrepreneurship and innovation by requiring students to transform their teams into “start-up” companies that respond to an RFP. In addition to their robots, the student teams also prepare technical reports, create a marketing (poster) display, and deliver engineering presentations.