Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland

Newfoundland and Labrador students brought home five awards from this year's Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center's Annual International Underwater Robotics Competition. The post-secondary Eastern Edge Robotics team along with teams from Clarenville High School and O'Donel High School competed in Orlando, Florida June 21-23 against 55 teams from around the world, where students design, build and operate a remotely operated vehicle to execute specified tasks.

Eastern Edge Robotics came first in engineering evaluation and the technical report and finished fourth overall in the event. They also won the Design Elegance Award and the Team Spirit Award in the Explorer class. The team is comprised of Memorial University students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines.

Clarenville High and O'Donel High from Mount Pearl also represented the province at the competition, having qualified by claiming first and second place respectively at the Marine Institute's regional MATE ROV high school competition in May. Both schools competed in the Ranger Class, with Clarenville claiming fourth place overall.

Team member Mackenzie Dove from the Clarenville High School was recognized with the Martin Bowen Piloting Award. NL students have proven to be among the best in the world at the MATE's international competition, racking up three first place, two second place and two third place finishes in the last seven years.