Egypt wins underwater robotics contest for 2nd year in row .. launches 1st marine research, tech center

21 / 07 / 2019

By Marwa Nassar -

Egypt’s winning of the MATE International ROV Competition for the second straight year has prompted its to launch the first marine research and technology center.

Egypt copped the second position in the MATE International ROV Competition 2019 – which was held in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA, in June 20-22 – and won the “Best Performance” Award.

The MATE competition challenges college and university students from all over the world to design and build remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to tackle missions modeled after scenarios from the ocean workplace. The competition’s class structure of beginner, intermediate, and advanced complements the education pipeline by providing students with the opportunity to build upon their skills – and the application of those skills – as they engineer increasingly more complex ROVs for increasingly more complex mission tasks.

The MATE competition requires students to think of themselves as “entrepreneurs” and transform their teams into companies that manufacture, market, and sell “products.” In addition to engineering their ROVs, the students are required to prepare technical reports, poster displays, and engineering presentations that are delivered to working professionals who serve as competition judges.

Winning this international contest has encouraged Egypt to declare the launch of the first marine research and technology center in the Middle East, which will be specialized in marine technology as well as developing and designing marine robotics.

Aiming to enhance Egypt’s position in the marine technology field, the long-awaited project underwent intense work for eight years and is a collaboration between several partners including the Arab Academy of Science & Technology (AAST), the Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Company (GIE), and the US Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE).

These entities also initiated the first ever local and global marine robotics competition during their eight-year work.

Establishing this center is part of the Nile Preneur Initiative, funded by Banque Misr and the Central Bank of Egypt.

The center will manufacture naval robots designed to aid in the search and discovery process of petroleum and organic gas, the building and maintenance of naval network cables, as well maintenance and guarding of naval bases and operations.