The technical report must be submitted to the competition coordinator two weeks prior to the competition date in order for the judges to evaluate the technical merits of the team’s ROV design and construction and address any safety issues that may need to be resolved before the competition.  Any changes or additions that you make to ROV system that differ from the information the project report that you submit can be presented to the judges as part of your poster display and/or during your team’s engineering presentation.  The judges will not review and rescore revised versions of your project report at the competition venue. 

The report should be sent electronically as a pdf file attached to an e-mail or as a pdf file saved on a CD-ROM or disc and snail-mailed to the competition coordinator. 

Guidelines and required components:

• Length is less than 20 pages

• All measurements are in SI units (metric)

• Title page that includes:

• Your project/ROV name

• School/club name

• Team name (if applicable)

• List of team members

• Names of your instructor(s) and/or mentor(s)

• Abstract (250 words or less) that is concise and clearly summarizes the project.

• Photograph(s) of your completed ROV
  You are permitted to make modifications that may change the look of your vehicle between the time you submit your report and the competition, however this must be a photo(s) of your completed, intact vehicle, not a photo of individual systems and/or payload. 

• Budget/expense sheet
  Keep an accounting of your monies and expenditures.  In addition to funds, list any items (building materials, equipment, etc.) that were donated, the organization that made the donation, and an estimate of the item’s value.  A sample expense/budget sheet will be provided shortly as an example of how you can organize and report this information. 

• Electrical schematic
  Make sure to highlight safety features such as circuit breakers and fuses. This schematic may be NEATLY drawn by hand or created using a CAD software program (e.g., OroCAD).

• Design rationale presented in a clear and logical manner.

• Description of at least one challenge that your team faced and what methods were used to overcome it.  These can include both technical and those challenges related to working as a team, such as team dynamics and dealing with individual personalities. 

• Explanation of troubleshooting technique(s) used to overcome technical problems.

• Description of at least one lesson learned or skill gained during the building process.

• Discussion of future improvements

• How ROVs are currently being used to explore and understand our national marine sanctuaries (500 words or less).  You can focus on one sanctuary or include information about ROV missions in a number of different sanctuaries.  These missions can be related to science, exploration, conservation, or policy issues.  Reference at least 3 sources for your information, and include photographs and/or graphics where appropriate.   

• Acknowledgements
  Please recognize the companies, organizations, professionals from industry, and/or mentors who helped to support your team by donating funds, building supplies, equipment, site visits to facilities, time, and/or technical expertise.