MIST crowned Pioneer Class World Champion at MATE ROV World Championship

The Military Institute of Science and Technology's (MIST) underwater robotics team, MIST Mavirov, has been awarded World Champions in Pioneer Class at the prestigious MATE ROV World Championship 2026, held from June 23 to 27 in Canada. Competing against teams from across the globe, MIST Mavirov secured the highest combined score across all competition categories through its excellence in planning, designing, and building its flagship underwater rover, “Mavirio”. UIU Mariner from United International University (UIU) was the other Bangladeshi team at the competition.

Organised annually by the Marine Technology Society (MTS), the MATE ROV Competition is one of the world's leading underwater robotics contests, bringing together university teams to solve real-life marine engineering challenges. Mavirio is a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) designed to perform complex underwater missions. Competitions like MATE ROV prepare students for real-world underwater challenges like collecting underwater samples, creating photogrammetric maps of shipwrecks and aircraft wreckage, inspecting underwater cables, and supporting offshore infrastructure and micro pile installation.

MIST Mavirov consists of around 35 students from MIST's Department of Electrical, Electronic and Communication Engineering (EECE), led by Captain Mohammad Moinul Hasan, with Mavirio being their third-generation underwater robot, followed by the ROV “Leviathon” and the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) “Cripper”.

Preparation for the MATE ROV World Championship 2026 began in late 2025, when teams first had to submit technical documentation, a marketing presentation, and a product demonstration video before qualifying for the finals. The competition is mainly held under three categories: “Ranger” for school teams, “Pioneer” for advanced university teams, and “Explorer” for developing teams.

The five-day event began with rigorous safety inspections, where MIST Mavirov became the only Bangladeshi team to pass in a single attempt while also earning the highest workmanship score. Subsequently, the team completed the wave tank, ice tank, and fume tank product demonstrations before taking part in the “OmniScan Integration” and test tank, where the robot was deployed with advanced side-scan sonar technology used in underwater mapping and inspection. Throughout the competition, MIST Mavirov competed alongside renowned universities, including the National University of Singapore, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Washington, Purdue University, and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Notably, the judging panel also included distinguished marine experts such as Martin Klein, inventor of the modern side-scan sonar technology.

Apart from its technical performance, Mavirio also stood out for its environmentally conscious design. The team built and welded a full aluminium chassis, which made the ROV much more stable, replaced plastic zip ties with jute fibre and plastic or buoyancy foam with bamboo to maintain buoyancy. ROV Captain and Co-CEO Areeb Ayman Haque said, “We placed aquatic plant seedlings inside a semi-permeable compartment so that, if the ROV is ever lost underwater, it can naturally support the growth of a small aquatic ecosystem instead of becoming another piece of marine waste."

The team's innovative approach demonstrated that engineering excellence and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand.

MIST Mavirov expressed its gratitude to the Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Coast Guard, Bangladesh Ordnance Factory, Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden, Pubali Bank PLC, Meghna Group of Industries, Chittagong Dry Dock Limited, Scube Technologies Ltd, City Group, SKS, Cathweld Construction Co. Ltd, Engineering Inspection Services of Bangladesh Limited, and Blue Planet Group for supporting the project. The team also expressed gratitude to MIST’s EECE department and the institution’s faculty members for their continuous guidance. The achievement marks another proud milestone for Bangladesh's growing engineering and robotics community.

Fatima Ashraf is a contributor at Campus, The Daily Star.