Office of University Communications 

Student Engineering finishes top 6 in international competition

SPRINGFIELD – Student Engineering of Missouri State University finished sixth at the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) competition recently held in San Diego.

The Missouri State team created a robot vehicle which was able to complete all of the missions for the competition in the allowed time. Each team was required to demonstrate that their vehicle can descend, move forward the length of the tether, move backward the length of the tether, turn right and left, and ascend. 

Dr. Pawan K. Kahol, head of the department of physics, astronomy and material sciences, is the faculty adviser of Student Engineering of Missouri State University. He has been the adviser since the organization formed two years ago.

“While I can claim no credit for the success the students have been having, I am very proud of this team and previous teams which are bringing name and fame to Missouri State University” Kahol said. “The project this team undertook was clearly a success.”

The students who participated in the ROV competition are: sophomores Luke Waier, Zac Slaughter, Tommy Tran and Brian Olle and junior Jeremy Clemens.

 “We were very happy with how we did at the competition, and overall the project was a success,” said Waier.

In 2006, the team won the Rookie of the Year award at the competition in Houston. This year’s team placed sixth out of 26 international teams in the college division.