Surfrider Marine Recovery Systems

The ROV competition held by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center is a program that that challenges students to apply the physics, math, electronics, and engineering skills they are learning in the classroom to solving problems from the marine workplace. Events are held worldwide, and each year, the challenges that the students must face are changed every year. Students are only limited by safety restrictions and are open to use any materials, skills, and assets they have acquired. Students are challenged to think of themselves as a business, and must also create a professional persona for their company. Alongside developing an underwater ROV, they must also produce a technical report, poster display board, and business presentation.

My team, Surfrider Marine Recovery Systems, started as a group of friends who shared a common interest in building things. Together we overcame many obstacles and challenges, including finding a new mentor to continue the program (the old one was fired), cleaning up a vandalized shop classroom to set up for our base of operations, and learning to get along; all during our first year of working as a unit. We made quite a splash when were declared the undisputed champions at the Oahu Regional, then placing 5th at the MATE International Competition in Orlando, Florida.

I was the lead technical writer who was responsible for design of the technical report, poster display board, and business presentation. I was also responsible for creating the professional image of the company, and designed the logo. Throughout the years, I gathered and compiled the necessary information to include in the technical report. This consisted of design rationale, graphs, budget sheets, and team evaluations. The same data was then used to design the poster display board, which quickly summarized the design rationale of our ROV, marketbale features, and goals of the company. For the business presentation, I was responsible for creating speech content and teaching team members the necessary skills to create a formal 15 minute presentation.

From this experience, I’ve become more well-rounded as a student and picked up technical skills I would not have gained from a traditional classroom setting. I’ve become more self-driven to create and start projects, and learning how to manage a team to accomplish a common goal. Today, I mentor the new generation of Surfriders, as they learn to work together to build a team capable of competing at the international level.

You can learn more at the Marine Advanced Technology Education website.