Neptune Energy is partnering with a team of University of Aberdeen students, supporting their entry to a global engineering challenge to build a working remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
Neptune was approached by the university’s Electrical & Electronic Engineering Society (EEESoc) and agreed to become their primary sponsor, providing funds to help purchase parts for the ROV and to cover fabrication and construction costs, as well as direct access to Neptune’s senior engineering and projects team for their advice and expertise.
The EEESoc members are competing in a global competition run by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (MATE), a partnership of US-based organisations that aims to improve education around marine technology. They do this through the support of educational institutions, by compiling assessments of workforce needs and establishing guidelines for emerging oceanic industries.
The MATE ROV competition tasks teams with structuring themselves as companies then designing and building a work class ROV – a remotely operated vehicle, regularly used in the energy industry to inspect subsea infrastructure. The university’s Nautilus ROV team consists of eight technical and five administrative roles across nine departments. Each technical department has junior engineer positions, designed to aid the work of the technical heads and to provide training for future department heads.
This competition assesses many of the aspects of a large-scale engineering project including financial decisions, marketing, health and safety standards and the ability of each ROV to face a range of challenges. It tests students’ skills as engineers, project management abilities and develops “soft skills” associated with the modern engineering profession.
The ROV will be built at the University of Aberdeen and tested at local facilities.