PIONEER

The intention of the PIONEER class is to encourage, support, and sustain community/technical college and university team participation in the MATE ROV Competition.
Participation in the PIONEER class is open to students in these institutions competing for competing for the first time. Note that “first time” is defined as:
- 75% of students on the team have not competed previously
  and/or
- A four-year university has never fielded a team before
  and/or
- A two-year community/technical college has not fielded a team in the last three years
Community/technical college teams will be permitted to compete in the PIONEER class in consecutive years provided that they notify the MATE ROV Competition of their intention by December 31 of the previous competition year.
Teams of mixed college/university and high school students are allowed to participate in the PIONEER class provided that the high school students:
- Are enrolled in classes at the college or university
- Do not make up more than 50% of the community/technical college team or 25% of the university team

Students from two-year community/technical college teams who transfer to a four-year university that does not currently have a MATE ROV team may continue to participate as a member of their community college team in the PIONEER class.
Students may only participate on one team. This applies across competition classes - i.e. a student competitor on a PIONEER team cannot also participate as a student competitor on a RANGER team.

Compete in the PIONEER class.