[MUSIC PLAYING]
So we are here today for
the Oregon Regional MATE ROV
competition, which is
an underwater robotics
competition.
Our goal is to really get
students interested in science,
technology, engineering,
and math-- or STEM--
and connect them with marine
technicians, and engineers,
and marine scientists
that utilize remotely
operated vehicles, or ROVs.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We've come to the
ROV competition
for the last few years,
and they're always
changing the competition,
like the task and everything.
So we have to build a
new robot every time,
and just think up new
ways to complete tasks.
And it's really good
problem solving, team work,
just everything, all together.
It really helps out in
the engineering process,
and helps you have better
skills for the future.
In addition to the
missions that they
have to accomplish in
the pool, they also
have an engineering
presentation that they
do for real marine technicians,
engineers, and scientists,
that they have to
essentially show them
their design, go through
how they formed their team,
what the roles
are for the teams.
So everybody on the
team has a role.
And they show them their
design that they created.
They talk about the
challenges and how
they got around the challenges.
They talk about the safety
features of the robot.
They talk about the
special features
that they developed, in order
to accomplish the mission tasks.
The best of the kids
are just right on it.
A couple of teams,
they just nailed it.
They had read all
the instructions,
and they were prepared to
go through, line by line,
by line, by line, in
a reasonable order,
to tell us all the things
they needed to tell us.
And that was wonderful to see.
I can speak for all my
team members-- none of us
had really done anything
like this before.
But some of my team members
are really, really good
at programming, now.
And we have one kid who
is really good at using
CAD software design, now.
And they actually had
internships over the summer
because of--
we all did, actually.
We were together over the
summer because those experiences
we had in robotics gave us
qualifications for jobs that we
wouldn't have had before.
So--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
For students who struggle
with conventional school,
it's a chance for
them to really shine.
More than just getting them
into robotics, I think it's--
that shift in mindset is so
critical that it doesn't just
say, I want to do robotics.
It says, I can do anything.
Even if I don't know
anything about it right now,
I can figure it out.
What we're looking
at is how we are
seeing the students develop,
the relationships that we're
seeing between the student teams
and some of our industry folks
who are now hiring these
high schoolers as interns
at their company,
because they're
so impressed with their
skills, and further allowing
them to develop those skills.
We have over 60 volunteers that
help run this event every year.
It's a huge, huge
investment, and they all
donate their time and their
travel to be part of this,
because they really feel that
this is an important investment
in our future.
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
