Tom Swean was the gruff 58-year-old head of the Navy’s Ocean Engineering and Marine Systems program. He developed million-dollar autonomous underwater robots for the SEALs at the Office of Naval Research. He was not used to dealing with Mexican-American teenagers sporting gold chains, fake diamond rings, and patchy, adolescent mustaches.
The Carl Hayden [High School] team stood nervously in front of him. He stared sullenly at them. This was the engineering review – professionals in underwater engineering evaluated all the ROVs, scored each team’s technical documentation, and grilled students about their designs. The results counted for more than half of the total possible points in the contest.
“How’d you make the laser range finder work?” Swean growled. MIT had admitted earlier that a laser would have been the most accurate way to measure distance underwater, but they’d concluded that it would have been difficult to implement.
“We used a helium neon laser, captured its phase shift with a photo sensor, and manually corrected by 30 percent to account for the index of refraction,” Cristian [Arcega] answered rapidly, keyed up on adrenaline. Cameron had peppered them with questions on the drive to Santa Barbara, and Cristian was ready.
Swean raised a bushy, graying eyebrow. He asked about motor speed, and Lorenzo sketched out their combination of controllers and spike relays. Oscar answered the question about signal interference in the tether by describing how they’d experimented with a 15-meter cable before jumping up to one that was 33 meters.
“You’re very comfortable with the metric system,” Swean observed.
“I grew up in Mexico, sir,” Oscar said.
Swean nodded. He eyed their rudimentary flip chart.
“Why don’t you have a PowerPoint display?” he asked.
“PowerPoint is a distraction,” Cristian replied. “People use it when they don’t know what to say.”
“And you know what to say?”
“Yes, sir.”
The low-budget four-man team of recent immigrants from Carl Hayden High defeated MIT, Caltech and nearly a dozen other engineering powerhouses to win the Navy’s annual ROV contest. Read the whole thing and try not to go wussy and tear up like I did.
Citizen Deux
Thanks. As a member of the Navy’s Engineering / Scientific community that story is one of the finest examples of youth rising ABOVE expectations.
And yes, I did get teary eyed, dammit.
Ancient Purple
Oh, sure. Underwater lasers.
But had this been about Intelligent Design or suppresion of Plan B, Liberty University, Oral Roberts University, or Bob Jones University would have won hands down.
Underwater lasers.
Phooey.
Kimmitt
Hell, I’m already teared up.
VidaLoca
Win all the marbles in a tough competition like that, and then graduate to a career hanging sheetrock. Is this a great country, or what.
les
Immigration “reform:” grasp sharp stick firmly, insert in own eye. We all need to do our part to keep bright committed kids from contributing to society.
chopper
i teared up when i first read it a year ago. but now, i’m all out of tears.
it’s a great story.
Jimitha
It’s been a year–where are they now?
SeesThroughIt
Well, it’s a first step. The next step, of course, is to attach them to the heads of frickin’ sharks.
neil
Jimitha, VidaLoca was not kidding. The kids are undocumented immigrants and one of them is indeed hanging sheetrock.
Perry Como
That’s what they get for destroying America.
Ancient Purple
Which means he is doing more to contribute to the betterment of American society that the entire Bush Administration.
Keith
Immigrants shooting lasers now? Underwater? Is there a threat level above red?
Sorry, I’ve been conditioned to piss my pants at the mere mention of the word “immigrant”.
ThymeZone
No doubt. Even in Phoenix, which has its barrio, for sure, the “immigrant” neighborhoods don’t have “diapers floating down the street” in the rain. Sorry, that’s just bullshit. Whoever wrote this article is a drama queen.
Carl Hayden High School doesn’t sit in a garbage pile, or anything like it. Use Google maps and observe the school campus at the SE corner of 35th avenue and Roosevelt (you can start with a search for 3500 W Roosevelt, Phoenix, AZ, which will put you right there).
The neighborhoods there are neat, lower-middle-class residential areas probably pretty typical of such areas in a lot of cities. It’s not a slum and it’s not trash.
Another thing I don’t think is mentioned in the article is the fact that Carl Hayden is part of the central city Phoenix Union High School District …
Carl Hayden’s website. See if you can find the “drab” buildings ….
More about it ….
Francis
from Thymezone’s link:
Readers of Wired magazine sent in contributions and all the four kids in that story will be in college
ThymeZone
BTW, if you follow my links to the Phoenix Union High School district site, and then to the Metro Tech school site, you will see my very own alma mater, formerly known as West Phoenix High School.
Class of 1963. When I graduated, we had one of maybe three working Foucalt Pendulums in the country, AFAIK. And it was one of the first in the world with electromagnetic drive.
Nikki
This story would make an excellent movie. I pray that someone somewhere will step up to ensure that, despite their illegal status, these incredible minds do not go to waste.
US Patriot
I agree with him about Powerpoint presentation. In my experience, professors who employ this “teaching” technique tend to have more difficulty in conveying their ideas to their students.
I’d also view this piece as a compelling argument for the implementation of the metric system in American society. It hardly seems like a revolutionary position; rather, it is an idea whose time has come.
bago
Incompetent people abuse powerpoint badly.
Ideally you stick dense text and syntax up on the screen while you yammer on about the specifics and the overall theory.
Stupid people just use the slides to repeat everything on the screen.
Nikki
Looks like Carl Hayden High might be the future of underwater robotics. They took 1st in 2004, 3rd in 2005 and 2nd in 2006. However, they won’t compete next year because the competition is being held in Canada.
Here, an MIT grad gives his thoughts on why his alma mater lost that year.
Perry Como
Tancredo Taupe.
Jimitha
neil: I did read that the kid was hanging sheetrock, but the article was dated April 2005–I was curious to know if anything had changed in the last year. ThymeZone’s link made me feel a lot better; thanks ThymeZone.
canuckistani
It’s terrible.. not only are illegal aliens stealing jobs, they’re stealing engineering prizes from native-born Americans.
I think what these kids did was awesome, but I think there should be a special prize for the teachers who can coach these “dead-end” kids into something great. That takes dedication and real faith in the abilities of your students.
This would make a great movie. What’s Spanish for “October Sky”?
Otto Man
“Stand and Deliver”?
Seriously, this has Disney written all over it. The Hooters exchange is perfect.
Pb
…except that they didn’t take the kids to Hooters. Jesus, people–TAKE THE KIDS TO HOOTERS. After that victory, I would have snuck them into a strip club if they had wanted to go, let alone freaking Hooters.
Gary Farber
Yeah, it was a neat story a year and a half ago.
searp
If those kids are really undocumented, they won’t be going to college anytime soon. You need a visa to go to college, it isn’t just a money thing.
MIT loses a surprising number of these sorts of competitions – my guess is that the students and profs lack focus and motivation. In my experience, MIT profs and students get where they want to go without winning competitions, they already won the big one, they are at MIT.
Don
“PowerPoint is a distraction,” Cristian replied. “People use it when they don’t know what to say.”
This makes me love him in a way that’s illegal in many southern states.
tzs
Speaking as an MIT grad, I’d say some of the question is whether the technological challenge really sparks the imagination.
There is also the fact that trying to do this on top of a full course schedule is, um, interesting…..
I still consider it a point of pride that I only had to pull three all-nighters during my years at MIT.