The team will guide a remotely operated vehicle while also presenting technical specs and other details of their work.
Last year, a group of students from Harrington Middle School’s Marine Advanced Technology Education program traveled to Johnson Space Center in Houston with their underwater remotely operated vehicle and placed third in the world for its division when it competed in the MATE International ROV Competition.
When those same five students, now freshmen at Lenape High School, found themselves at a school this year that did not offer an underwater robotics team, they simply decided to start their own by forming MTL HydroTech.
Having already racked up a first-place win in the Ranger division at the regional competition in Pennsylvania earlier this year, the students now prepare to compete at internationals once more in the 16th Annual MATE International ROV Competition held in Long Beach City, Calif., June 23 through June 25.
As with last year’s competition, the event will bring together students from middle schools, high schools and colleges around the world to guide their ROVs through underwater challenges, while also presenting technical documents, giving oral presentations and marketing their teams as if they were real companies trying to sell devices.
“The third place at internationals last year definitely boosted us and took us to that point where we we’re like ‘I want to do this again,’” said Ahemd Fouad, who serves as electrical engineer and CEO of the team.
However, as Ahmed and other team members will attest, there’s a big difference between simply wanting to form a team and making it a reality.
Without having Harrington Middle School to serve as a home base and sponsor, the boys had to adapt to working on the ROV by themselves or in pairs, traveling between their homes when necessary and working 10 to 20 hours a week as they got closer to the regional competition.
The boys also had to rely on the generosity of their families to help provide the funds necessary to purchase the parts for their ROV (about $2,600) and the rental fees for the pool at Moorestown Community House where they practiced.
“At the start of the year, we decided each parent would chip in a certain amount, and we formed our budget around that number,” said Daniel Lam, team software engineer
The team also kept in touch with Maureen Barrett, its previous coach and STEM teacher at Harrington Middle School, who allowed MTL HydroTech to use the pool in her classroom for smaller buoyancy tests and sometimes worked with the team to share one another’s time at the Community House pool.
Even still, as the season went on, the team was forced to get creative with funds and testing.
“We had to spend more on the ROV for different changes we wanted to make, but luckily we had a family member who had a pool and neighbor who had pool who let us borrow,” said Ethan Stillman, one of the team’s mechanical engineers.
In addition to the success the team members have had with their engineering work, the boys also cite other, more personal reasons for continuing together, including the life skills they feel working on the MATE team has provided to them.
Mechanical engineer Andrew McCorkle spoke to the perseverance needed to maintain a MATE team.
“In the past, there were a lot of people that said they wanted to do it but never followed it through,” Andrew said. “The underwater robotics is a lot of fun.”
For Vincent Cariello, the team’s remaining mechanical engineer, it comes down to friendship.
“Now that we’ve been on the team for a couple years, I’ve really become good friends with them and I really like them a lot,” Vincent said.
As the team readies for California, the members attribute their success and experience with the international competition last year as leading to more confidence in their work for the event ahead.
They also noted the change in location from Johnson Space Center, with its more regimented schedule and strict identification requirements, helps as well.
“At the last one, if you fell in the pool it was a federal offense,” Ethan said.
