Increasing Community College Participation in the Marine Advanced Technology Education's Remotely Operated Vehicle Competition

海洋先进技术教育 (MATE) 中心与海洋技术合作举办了全球遥控潜水器 (ROV) 竞赛。 这项比赛挑战学生们建造水下机器人来根据现实世界的情况处理任务。 通过这项工作，学生发展并应用一系列技术、科学和工作技能。 这些技能是当今雇主最需要的技能，包括创造力、适应性、团队合作和沟通。目前，社区学院学生在 MATE ROV 竞赛中的代表性不足。该项目位于加利福尼亚州蒙特利市蒙特利半岛学院，旨在增加参加 MATE ROV 竞赛的社区学院学生数量。 预计这种参与将增加社区学院学生的数量，这些学生拥有进入 STEM 技术人员队伍并在其中茁壮成长所需的科学和工作技能，而 STEM 技术人员队伍是国家经济和安全的关键部门。该项目的总体目标是增加参加 MATE ROV 竞赛的社区大学数量。为了实现这一目标，该项目将：1）物色并招募社区学院参加竞赛； 2）聘请经验丰富的社区学院师资ROV团队顾问担任导师； 3）为社区学院教师备战比赛提供资源和其他支持； 4) 使用 MATE 的评估-竞争方法作为竞赛团队的指导和反馈工具以及招募新社区大学的工具； 5) 增强MATE区域协调员工具包中的资源，以协助协调员招募和支持参加比赛； 6）确定并传播持续长期参与竞赛的例子，这些例子可适用于其他本科生的研究经历。该项目借鉴了其他成功的 NSF 资助项目（包括 MATE 中心和 ITEST Scale-Up）的经验和最佳实践。 此外，该项目将使用同样由 NSF 支持的在线本科生研究评估工具 EvaluateUR 来衡量项目活动的功效和影响。 该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划重点关注推动国家经济发展的先进技术领域的技术人员教育。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center created a global remotely operated vehicle (ROV) competition in partnership with the Marine Technology. This competition challenges students to build underwater robots to tackle tasks based on the real world situations. Through this work, students develop and apply a range of technical, scientific, and workplace skills. These skills among the most in demand by employers today, and include creativity, adaptability, teamwork, and communication. Community college students are currently underrepresented in MATE ROV Competitions. This project at Monterey Peninsula College in Monterey California, aims to increase the number of community college students who participate in the MATE ROV competition. It is expected that this participation will increase the number of community college students who have the scientific and workplace skills needed to enter and thrive in the STEM technician workforce, a critical sector for the nation’s economy and security. The overarching goal of the project is to increase the number of community colleges that participate in the MATE ROV Competition. To accomplish this goal, the project will: 1) identify and recruit community colleges to participate in the competition; 2) use experienced community college faculty ROV team advisors to serve as mentors; 3) provide resources and other support to community college faculty preparing for the competition; 4) use MATE’s Evaluate-Compete methodology as a mentoring and feedback vehicle for competition teams and as a tool to recruit new community colleges; 5) enhance the resources in the MATE Regional Coordinators’ Toolkit to assist coordinators in recruiting and supporting participation in competitions; and 6) identify and disseminate examples for sustaining long-term participation in the competition that could be applicable to other undergraduate research experiences. This project leverages the experiences and best practices from other successful NSF-funded projects including the MATE Center and ITEST Scale-Up. In addition, the project will use an online undergraduate research evaluation instrument also supported by NSF, EvaluateUR, to measure the efficacy and impact of the project activities. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.