
How four underdogs took on M.I.T. in underwater bot championship (2005) - curtis
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/robot_pr.html
======
jbrun
And then all of them could not go to college due to immigration status and
lack of money. They do manual labor now. Great American Underdog Story.

~~~
munin
even when they raised $90k of money from donations after their story was in
Wired, two of them went but both dropped out. I think they work at a catering
company now? it is a very american story.

and of course, most likely the team from MIT they beat are all now working at
high tech companies or in graduate schools.

~~~
spiritplumber
"The point of the game is not to win the game. The point of the game is to
take the prize home."

Reminds me of a mini-competition that happened between some San Antonio unis
about who got to do a NASA internship. The girl who got 3rd place went because
the winner and runner-up were not American citizens (I was the runner-up).

We ended up collaborating on the design remotely. In later life, I had at
least one person tell me that I couldn't put that on a resume. This person was
not hurt.

------
gohrt
NYT covers these engineers and their immigration status last month:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/opinion/the-cruel-waste-
of...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/opinion/the-cruel-waste-of-americas-
tech-talent.html)

For Wired:

> "What will you say," [Ira Mehlman] asks, "to an American kid who does not
> get into a state university and whose family cannot afford a private college
> because that seat and that subsidy have been given to someone who is in the
> country illegally?"

I would say, "We need to restore state college funding to the level it was
when Ira Mehlman went to college; to make practical advanced education
accessible to all, because it's the best investment we can make in our nation"

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pthreads
Hasn't this been read and read over and over again?

~~~
thetmkay
A film has just been released in select US cinemas based on their story

Spare Parts (2015) -
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/)

~~~
6stringmerc
Yes, I have seen the film and it is quite good. The story itself and the
cinematic execution are definitely above par, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars for
entertainment and quality.

Also, I'm reluctant to call it an underdog story. It's more a "coming of age"
story, which is a different thing. There are many, many emotional aspects to
the film (family dynamics - multiple generations in a home, absent father or a
deported mother) which serve to enhance the overall themes of what happened.

Lastly, it's one of the few films I've seen recently that doesn't rely on CGI
to show off important parts of the story. As the credits indicated, there were
teams of robotics professionals who built the units used in the film.

I recommend the film and will buy it to have in my house to put on in the
background when the mood strikes me. Others that fit that bill for me are
_Rush_ , _Shawshank Redemption_ , _The Crow_ , and _The Big Lebowski_. YMMV.

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julianj
I don't know why, but I kept reading this as underwear bot championship...

