Quick take:
They didn’t think they would win, as they moved up in the competition. At the 22nd Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition in Kingsport, Tennessee, Cabrillo’s Robotics Club, designed and engineered an underwater robot capable of tasks related to ocean conservation. To win, they beat 29 teams from all over the globe.
Despite back-to-back wins in the MATE ROV competition’s intermediate category, even Cabrillo’s Robotics Club team was surprised this year when they won first place in the advanced category.
With just five members – fewer than most teams that usually number about 10 – the Cabrillo students were not expecting the award at the 22nd Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition.
“It hasn’t set in for me at all,” said Stephanie L’Heureux, Cabrillo Robotics Club President. “I thought we were going to get middle-of-the pack – maybe 6th or 7th.”
Yet, Cabrillo’s Robotics Club won first place for its marine robot, winning in late June in Kingsport, Tennessee. To win, it outperformed 29 teams from as far as Italy, Hong Kong and Egypt.
The team, called Seahawk, competed in the competition’s most advanced category for the first time, narrowly defeating a long-time winning competitor, Jesuit Robotics of Jesuit High School from Carmichael, California.
The MATE ROV competition challenges students to design and engineer an underwater robot capable of tasks related to ocean conservation. The robots need to be able to connect and disconnect cables, pick up rocks and turn on valves, for example. The club, with each of its members specializing in distinct tasks, worked about 4,500 hours over the span of almost a year to design, build and test their robot.
From June 20-22, the competition brought 82 teams from 17 countries to compete in three levels.
Mike Matera, the Robotics Club advisor since the club’s founding in 2013, encouraged the students to compete in the most advanced level, but stopped short of thinking they would win. He’s the Computer Information Systems (CIS) Department Chair and professor.
“I was like, it will be good for you to get humbled by the competition for a change,” he said, laughing. “Turns out, I’m wrong about most things.”
Unable to attend the competition with the team in person, Matera remembers when L’Heureux texted him the moment they won first place.
“I was just like, wait, what?” he said. “And when it sank in, I just literally cried. I was with a bunch of friends. ‘They were like, what’s going on!?’ and my friends were like, ‘Don’t they always win?’ and I said, ‘This is different!’”
Indeed, Cabrillo’s team had previously won. It previously competed in the mid-level category which included only community colleges – and won first place in 2022 and in 2023. After winning those two, the team wanted a greater challenge and entered the highest-level, which included high schools and four-year universities.
The most advanced level, known as the explorer category includes clubs like Jesuit High School’s, which has participated in the competition for 18 years of the MATE ROV’s 22-year run. The team won first place the three prior years.
This year, Cabrillo College earned seven more points (624.5 vs 617.5) than the Jesuit High team to take home the win. A perfect score is 745.
In addition to L’Heureux, team members included Isaac Eda, Isaac Wax, Rowan Garties and Liam Gilligan. L’Heureux and Wax were first exposed to robotics while attending an independent home study program part of Branciforte Small Schools in middle school and high school; the remaining team members started robotics within the last one to two years.
It’s rare, Matera said, for a community college, where students typically spend less time than at four-year universities, to commit so much time to a project and bond so closely as a group.
“It’s the dream team,” he said.
The students arrived in Kingsport, Tennessee, a few days before the competition, which took place June 20-22 at the Kingsport Aquatic Center Olympic-size competition pool. While the students argue which parts of the competition – the presentations or the demonstrations – were the hardest, Garties recalls the two pool demonstrations as being the most unnerving.
Rising to the occasion
During the demonstrations, they put their robot in the water and piloted it to do different tasks as judges watched. The best score out of the two attempts is used for the overall point total.
On the first day, the team made their first attempt at a pool demonstration, on a very hot afternoon. L’Heureux got heat stroke and one of their tools didn’t work, but they fared decently, scoring 213 and placing about third or fourth.
On the second day, before they got the robot in the water they thought it was all over.
“One of the judges stepped on the valve coupler,” said Gilligan, describing an attachment on the robot used to turn valves.
They quickly improvised and found another way to use their robot’s main “arm” to do the maneuver that the valve coupler would have done, delighting the judge, according to the students. They scored 285 which got them third again in the demonstration as the other teams also performed much better the second day.
When it came to announce the winners, they heard the second and third place winners and held their breath, nearly losing all hope.
“We resigned when we didn’t get called for second or third,” Gilligan said. “So when we got called – I don’t normally get that emotional – I was gasping. None of us really believed it.”
They won $500, four thrusters (small propellers) and a 60-foot cable, which is used to connect the robot to their power source.
Sitting in Cabrillo College’s Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) building on campus on Thursday, they reminisced about the win, what they did to get there – 4,500 hours and many tears. They also talked about how they’re preparing for their next challenge: the RoboSub competition in August 2025.
“It’s a logical next step in terms of engineering challenges,” said Gilligan.
Another challenge they’re taking on with the new competition and autonomous robot – a robot run without a cable and without a person piloting it: fundraising. They estimate the sensors needed to build an autonomous robot would each cost more than $10,000. While they have about $7,000 raised so far, their rough estimate is that they need to raise about $40,000 for their new robot.
“I’m gonna have to sell a lot of blood,” said Matera.
Gilligan said he and L’Heureux are brainstorming how they’ll be fundraising.
To support Cabrillo Robotics Club or donate to their RoboSub entry, visit the Cabrillo Foundation website. When making a donation, enter “Robotics” in the special instructions or notes section.
