MATE ROV World Championship

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS) will host the MATE ROV World competition for the first time since 2014!

This global competition empowers students to design, build, and deploy ROVs to tackle real-world challenges. Each year the mission changes and is based on the host site for the World Competition, making 2025 all about the Great Lakes, specifically TBNMS.

Mission tasks will take place in the outdoor test tank at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center (the visitor center and museum for TBNMS)—a controlled, open-air environment designed to simulate real-world conditions. Teams will document a historic shipwreck, deploy a moored buoy equipped with environmental sensors, and collect and analyze water samples, all within this specially designed tank. Additionally, the team will focus on maintaining offshore wind turbines and floating solar panels systems, as well as deploying vertical profiling floats that contribute to global observing efforts. These tasks will play a…