Here at the Innovation Blog we have had other posts about how you never know where the next great idea will come from. But I would say that this story makes this point better than any other I can think of. The venue is the 2004 National ROV Competition for High School & College Students. Organized by NASA and the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center this is a competition where students conceptualize, design and build an underwater remotely operated vehicle and compete in a series of tasks and on the basis of their technical approach and their presentation. What makes this competition unusual is who was competing, who won and the basis for that win. This years winners were four students from Carl Hayden Community High School. Carl Hayden is located near Phoenix Arizona (not exactly a hot bed of marine activity) and the four students who were four undocumented Mexican emigrants. What makes the story even more interesting is that these four high school students beat the team from MIT in the final primarily on the basis of their written report and their presentation. Oh yes their vehicle did quite well also, but what actually won if for them is their ability to present their ideas. Now for the down side of the story. Since the four students are undocumented there is a very good chance they will not be able to go to college. The way the laws stand right now the best they can hope for is to pay out of state tuition at an Arizona univeristy which none of them can afford. So read about their story in this article in Wired, read about the details of the competition on the official site and then consider sending a donation to the scholarship fund for Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, and Oscar Vazquez. When what we hear so much negative in the news it is great to hear about 4 young students who have overcome significant odds to achieve a remarkable success.
