International Competition

Marine Advanced Technology and Education (MATE) Center hosts their international competition at annually rotating locations based on the competition missions. The missions change annually and reflect current events that occur in the area hosting the competition.

2014 Competition

• Vehicle: Orcus
• Location: Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan
• Missions based on surveying shipwrecks
• Placed 12th in International Competition
• Team member Juliana Pesavento received the Engineering Evaluation MVP award

2015 Competition

• Vehicle: Admare
• Location: St. John’s, Newfoundland
• Missions were based on science and industry in the Arctic
• Placed 13th in International Competition

Those of you interested in the MATE International competition may also be interested in a book and movie featuring the competition.

Spare Parts by Joshua Davis (2014) is a 224-page nonfiction novel about a high school team of undocumented immigrants in Arizona that competed in the 2004 MATE International competition.

The film adaptation of the book, Spare Parts, was released in 2015. Those of you who found Spare Parts to be of interest may also enjoy the 1999 film October Sky, which is based on the true story of a group of high school students building rockets for a national science competition in a 1950s West Virginia coal town.