Matthew Gardner started his time with the MATE ROV Competition in 2003 as team captain of the Monterey Peninsula College EXPLORER class ROV team. After two years as captain, in 2005 he moved up to help run the MATE ROV Competition, serving as the MATE ROV Competition’s Technical Manager. He helps to come up with the mission, build the mission tasks and write the competition manuals. Since 2017, Matthew has also been the MATE ROV Competition – Northern California / Monterey Bay’s regional coordinator as well. Matthew is also the lead instructor for the MATE Center’s professional development workshops. Matthew has written the instructions and many of the lessons for the MATE Center’s fleet of educational ROVs. In 2020, he co-led the transition of the MATE professional development lessons from an in-person delivery format to an online format.