IQALUIT - Eleven budding scientists from Inuksuk high school in Iqaluit will travel to St. John's, Nfld., on June 19 to show off their latest technological achievement.

Wally Picco (left) and Brendan Moyles (right) display a remotely operative vehicle, or underwater robot, that will makes its debut at the 2007 MATE International ROV competition. Picco and Moyles are part of an 11-person team at Inuksuk high school in Iqaluit that built the robot, which will compete against robots from other teams across the world. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Call it an ROV - short for remotely operated vehicle - or as the team of students from Inuksuk sometimes dubs it: Robert Omega Victor.

The students will be taking part in the 2007 MATE International Roving Competition, a weekend-long contest that brings together competing high school teams from Canada, the United States and other countries including Thailand and Germany.

The task before each team? Build a robot like those used in the offshore industry capable of extracting material - such as jellyfish and algae - from below the icy surface of polar waters.

"We use plastic o-balls to simulate the jellyfish," said Joey Rhodes, a math and science instructor overseeing the students' work alongside fellow teacher Kim Parsons.

"In our practice area, we use ping pong balls for the algae, too."

The practice area is Iqaluit's public pool, into which the students plunge their model - equipped with five motors and made primarily out of PVC wiring - using a battery powered navigational box. The box is plugged into a monitor that provides live footage of the ROV's movements - a feat made possible by the underwater camera affixed to the robot.

The team has been hard at work designing the robot since early January, said Rhodes.

"The competition doesn't just involve building the robot," he said. "We also have to develop a technical report, where we explain our whole design rationale, why we used certain materials, etc... We just submitted ours."

Producing the robot is fun, said Brandon Moyles, a Grade 11 student. It's the technical presentation to the competition's panel of judges that can be taxing.

"It makes you a little nervous getting in front of the panel of engineers," said Moyles. "But you get up there and explain your design and the features of the robot."

According to another team member, Grade 12 student Wally Picco, the project forced him to come out of his shell and taught him the value of relying on others for help.

"I'm a pretty introverted person. But now I can work with more people than I thought," he said.

This is the group's second year at the competition. During last year's contest - held in the Nassau Space Station in Texas - the group ranked 14th out of 25 teams - the best debut by a first-time team in the high school division's history, said Rhodes.

"The nerves are always high," he said.