The 2025 MATE ROV Competition World Championship brought together different languages, continents, values, time zones, resources, climates, and customs – but with a shared mission; ocean, and planet. It is easy to stand back and see the differences, but the shared passion to innovate new technology to serve our shared ocean and Great Lakes overpowers it all.
There are so many stories that could be shared from the global competition that was hosted by Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS), but a standout is the togetherness. It won’t be one country, one team, or one person that makes a breakthrough that serves our waters, it will be collaboration like many witnessed throughout the campus of the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center (GLMHC) during the 2025 annual competition.
Check out lots of highlights from our Facebook page featuring teams interacting, supporting each other, and having a blast making new friends at the Friday night summer solstice party along the Thunder Bay River.
– day before the competition starts
– day 1 highlights
– day 2 highlights and summer solstice party
All year, teams around the globe have been learning about the Great Lakes in order to design and build an underwater robot (ROV) that can complete work, research, and missions happening in these fresh water ecosystems. Challenges such as, documenting a historic shipwreck, deploying a moored buoy equipped with environmental sensors, and collecting and analyzing water samples were part of this year’s prescribed mission tasks, based on work happening in the sanctuary. Additionally, the open-aired Marine Technology Training Tank located at TBNMS provides a unique environment to simulate real-world conditions for the nearly 80 teams representing 22 U.S. states and 18 countries in attendance.
Winners were determined by three judged categories:
1) A timed product demonstration in the Marine Technology Training Tank that challenged teams with a list of missions based on work happening at TBNMS.
2) Engineering presentations where teams explained their product to a panel of judges at ACC.
3) A marketing display featuring their ROV and team experience that was showcased at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center.
Points were accumulated to determine overall winners in three categories based on ability, along with a handful of specialty awards generated by judge nominations. The three local teams in attendance all received awards.
SAFETY AWARD – Raft Robotics from Alcona High School, mentored by Elizabeth Thomson
TEAM SPIRIT AWARD – UR2 from Alpena High School, mentored by Bob Thomson
BEST ENGINEERING PRESENTATION RANGER CLASS – UR2 from Alpena High School
3rd OVERALL PIONEER DIVISION – Aquajacks from Alpena Community College, mentored by David Cummins
ENGINEERING MVP AWARD – Kylie Gagnon of UR2 for learning how to weld in her role as team Fabricator
“The sanctuary is an amazing resource within our community and continues to attract world class opportunities for students. The fact that our regional teams performed exceptionally well and were able to showcase their home to the world of underwater robotics, is an extremely powerful experience.” – Daniel Moffatt, Stewardship & Education Specialist at TBNMS, also a Regional Coordinator for MATE
The MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Engineering) ROV Competition World Championship changes host sites each year. The last time TBNMS hosted was in 2014 and the competition has grown since. In 2026, the host site will be Memorial University Marine Institute (MUMI) in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. Every May, TBNMS hosts a Great Lakes Regional MATE ROV Competition that draws around 20 teams from around Michigan and Ohio.
