News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Alpena ROV members Lydia Thomson and Sarah Rabbideau are pictured with the team’s ROV at the Alpena Plaza Pool earlier this week.

ALPENA — Today, the Alpena High School remotely operated vehicle team will compete in the 2023 Marine Advanced Technology Education Great Lakes Regional ROV competition.  

The public is invited to come watch students compete in a ROV competition from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the campus of NOAA’s Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, 500 W. Fletcher St. in Alpena.

The students’ robots will be on display in the Marine Technology Training Tank at Heritage Center.

The MATE ROV competition started in 2001 and involves 46 different regional competitions with the Great Lakes region being one of them. Students create remote operated vehicles that are judged on how they handle a variety of tests based on real-world scenarios. 

The MATE ROV competition separates the teams into five distinct classes correlating with their education level: Scout, for elementary school students; Navigator for middle school students; Ranger for high school students; Pioneer for community college students, and Explorer for technical college students. 

Each class has its own specific assignments they need to have completed for the competition.

The Alpena ROV team is led by Thunder Bay Junior High Teacher Robert Thomson, and they have been preparing for today’s competition since September.

“We start in September, where we maybe meet once a week,” Robert Thomson said about the teams’ preparation process. “The competition is released in December and then we start meeting a couple times a week.”

The Alpena team prepared for the competition at the Alpena Plaza Pool, where they shared the space with the Alcona ROV team who is also competing.

The Alcona team is led by Robert Thomson’s daughter Elizabeth Thomson, who prior to taking up a mentorship role with Alcona has been a competitor in ROV events for many years.

“This a really good experience for everyone involved,” Elizabeth Thomson said about the Alcona team sharing a space with the Alpena team “Collaboration with your team and learning from other teams, that’s really what this is all about.”

Alcona’s team is competing in the navigator class, so it can’t qualify for worlds. If Alpena advances, it can qualify for the worlds competition.

Because the international competition will take place in Longmont, Colorado, this year’s contest will highlight the role ROVs play in the harnessing of offshore wind and solar energy, ensuring healthy ecosystems from the mountains to the sea, and deploying technologies to monitor ocean conditions.

The winning teams will earn the opportunity to compete in the annual MATE World Championships, which will be held June 22 to 24 at the St. Vrain Valley School District and the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools in Longmont, Colorado.

Along with Alpena and Alcona, Detroit University Prep High School and Lincoln High School (Ohio) will compete today.

The 4,300 square-mile Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary works to protect the Great Lakes and their rich history. Lake Huron’s cold, fresh water preserves nearly 200 historic shipwrecks in and around the sanctuary. Through research, education, and community involvement, the sanctuary and its partners ensure that future generations can enjoy Thunder Bay’s irreplaceable underwater treasures.

The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary contributed to this story.