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[AstroLad]

Amazing story.

From Wired:

La Vida Robot

How four underdogs from the mean streets of Phoenix took on the best from M.I.T. in the national underwater bot championship.

By Joshua Davis

The winter rain makes a mess of West Phoenix. It turns dirt yards into mud and forms reefs of garbage in the streets. Junk food wrappers, diapers, and Spanish-language porn are swept into the gutters. On West Roosevelt Avenue, security guards, two squad cars, and a handful of cops watch teenagers file into the local high school. A sign reads: Carl Hayden Community High School: The Pride's Inside.

There certainly isn't a lot of pride on the outside. The school buildings are mostly drab, late '50s-era boxes. The front lawn is nothing but brown scrub and patches of dirt. The class photos beside the principal's office tell the story of the past four decades. In 1965, the students were nearly all white, wearing blazers, ties, and long skirts. Now the school is 92 percent Hispanic. Drooping, baggy jeans and XXXL hoodies are the norm.

The school PA system crackles, and an upbeat female voice fills the bustling linoleum-lined hallways. "Anger management class will begin in five minutes," says the voice from the administration building. "All referrals must report immediately."

Across campus, in a second-floor windowless room, four students huddle around an odd, 3-foot-tall frame constructed of PVC pipe. They have equipped it with propellers, cameras, lights, a laser, depth detectors, pumps, an underwater microphone, and an articulated pincer. At the top sits a black, waterproof briefcase containing a nest of hacked processors, minuscule fans, and LEDs. It's a cheap but astoundingly functional underwater robot capable of recording sonar pings and retrieving objects 50 feet below the surface. The four teenagers who built it are all undocumented Mexican immigrants who came to this country through tunnels or hidden in the backseats of cars. They live in sheds and rooms without electricity. But over three days last summer, these kids from the desert proved they are among the smartest young underwater engineers in the country.

Full Story Here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/robot.html

 

[element]

awesome story!! stupid US laws about scholarships for kids like these.

 

[Willco]

Pedro offers you his protection!

 

[Fowler]

I have this issue. It's a great story.

 

[Brian Fellows]

I say we steal their idea and send them back to Mexico.

 

[Particle Physicist]

wow, those MIT students probably committed suicide after that.

i hope those kids make it to college some day, they really deserve it..

 

[GG-Duo]

Awesome. This is a Disney adaptation waiting to happen...

 

[Kabuki Waq]

cant wait for teh disney movie staring Denzel Washington.


edit: fuck you for one upping my smartassness.

 

[Willco]

WALT DISNEY PRESENTS...

... based on a true story

EL SUBMARINES: A TEAM STORY

 

[galeninjapan]

WALT DISNEY PRESENTS...

... based on a true story

EL SUBMARINO: A TEAM STORY

Fixed

 

[Mario_Hugo]

Interestingly...this article is written by designer Joshua Davis of www.praystation.com.

 

[Lord Error]

Very nice article indeed, although it doesn't end so nice

Damn, I can really relate to these guys, as I'm coming from the country where pretty much noone makes even remotely decent amounts of money, but many young people still invest huge amounts of time in study and science, just for the knowledge alone, and some hope for the future.

Interestingly...this article is written by designer Joshua Davis of www.praystation.com.

Yeah, that was the very first thing I noticed