MATE Pennsylvania Regional ROV Competition

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Get ready for the coolest competition of the year:  area students from local teams flying hand-built, remote controlled robots through a challenging series of precision maneuvers - all in under 15 minutes - underwater.  This year, the competition is challenging students to tackle problems that impact the entire world. Plastics clogging our rivers, lakes, waterways, and ocean, from the surface to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Climate change raising ocean temperatures, affecting the health of coral reefs. Contaminants in our waterways. You can find these scenarios from Pennsylvania to Portugal, Florida to Australia, the Western Pacific to the Mid-Atlantic, and Indianapolis to Indonesia.

2021 MATE Pennsylvania Regional ROV Competition
Villanova University

REGIONAL COORDINATOR

Vanessa Morris

Velda Vanessa Morris, is the Pennsylvania Regional Coordinator for MATE. She serves as a results-oriented administrator who excels in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) initiatives, and brings research experience in the STEAM and workforce areas. Ms. Morris has strategically and intentionally increased the participation of all students, especially underrepresented young adults and girls in emerging technologies, and connects them to university and industry professionals.

For the past two decades she’s emboldened student’s curiosity in robotics and engineering platforms. Educators and students are empowered to be a voice or change agent to promote diversity and collaboration while making highly qualified environmental decisions based upon scientific and technical research.

Ms. Morris has conducted STEAM presentations nationally and published three books. She became one of the first African American elected officers to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Phila., Chapter 15, (since its inception in 1936). Throughout the years, Ms. Morris has written and received workforce and robotics land and sea grants while partnering with several colleges of engineering. In 2009, she partnered with the Mechanical Engineering department at Villanova University and Video Ray, LLC. (the global leader in ROV technology), thus launching the first MATE Pennsylvania ROV Competition, in the state and region.