Stinky ROV from Phoenix Takes on MIT

Posted 29 Mar 2005 at 18:07 UTC by steve

There's an entertaining new Wired article about a team of four Mexican immigrants from a Phoenix High School taking on MIT and other top schools in the recent MATE ROV contest. Their ROV, named Stinky, was hacked together from PVC pipe and other off-the-shelf parts. Their unconventional design combined with some last minute help from feminine hygiene products resulted in a favorable showing compared to robots entered by leading Universities. Stinky ended up with the design award and the team received a special achievement award in addition to being declared the overall winner of the competition. Their story inspired the Phoenix Union High School District to create the La Vida Robot scholarship fund to benefit the further education of the four team members: Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, and Oscar Vazquez. More photos are available on the team's website, as is a technical report (PDF format) describing their ROV.

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I think that this story is an Inspiration., posted 31 Mar 2005 at 16:50 UTC by egoo76 » (Journeyer)

Wow, this story is awesome! This is my first reply to an article on this website.I decided to post a reply mainly because this is not only the best article I have read here, but anywhere on the web in a long time. I may be a little biased towards robotic articles. Anyway these kids rock! To come in third against MIT and win all three awards is a monumental feat. Like David and Goliath, or William Wallace and the English, or...well you get the idea. These are high school kids from an economically challenged environment working with $800 (compared to the $11,000 MIT was working with). All I got to say is I am going to donate something and way to go guys!