Local Students Head to Robotics World Championship — TPG, Inc.

By Natalia Rodriguez

On May 4, the X Academy Hephaestus team put seven months of effort on the line at a regional underwater robotics competition, and when they finished third out of 31 teams, team member Evelyn Potts, who attends Aptos High, didn’t think they would qualify for the world championship.

Lauren and Evelyn Potts work on the float.

Ten minutes before their time in the water at Watsonville High, the team’s remote-operated vehicle was not floating and despite last-minute adjustments, it wasn’t going to.

But the tethered vehicle did work, and the team accumulated so many points in the competition, they got an invitation to the Marine Advanced Technology Education — Remotely Operated Vehicle World Championship, which is June 20-22 in Kingsport, Tennessee.

They are in the Ranger class for students with robotics experience.

Their task is to design and build an operational float — able to descend to the bottom and rise to the surface again — to collect data and monitor the ocean’s circulation, chemistry, biology, and overall health.

Essentially students create their own version of the remote-operated vehicles scientists use survey to water quality and monitor diseased coral — a complex task indeed.

11 Schools

Evelyn is a student who enjoys mathematical problem-solving. Since fourth grade, she’s been a member of the X Academy Math Circle, founded by Tim Sylvester, a Silicon Valley veteran and a software engineer at Joby Aviation, and his wife Barbara Meister, a network master who worked 12 years at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Evelyn is participating in the robotics competition with her twin sister Lauren, and students from 10 other schools.

From left at the pool: Kaden Collier, Ben Hillard, Uriel Marinez-Uribe, and Max Chen at the control station.

Hephaestus team members are:

• Autumn Feather and Josiah Staley, Scotts Valley High
• Matthew and Nate Hofmann, Soquel High
• Kaden Collier, San Lorenzo Valley High
• Izaak Ocampo, Pajaro Valley High School
• Uriel Marinez-Uribe, Watsonville High
• Orlando Cazales, Diamond Technology Institute
• Kai Herbst and Max Chen, Kirby School
• Sophia Casaletto, Olivia Chen, Amber Williams, Pacific Collegiate School
• Kaden Ortiz, St. Francis High
• Blaise Benoit-Corey, Nami Brown, Daniel Fernandez, Ben Hillard, Bennet Menzer, Cole Williams, Santa Cruz High

The Hephaestus team is fittingly named for the Greek god of craftsmen, artisans and metalworking.

It is part of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education X Academy Robotics Clubs, a program launched at the start of the 2023-24 school year to offer hands-on experience in robotics to all high school students in Santa Cruz County at no cost.

Math Circle

Ten years ago Sylvester and Meister saw there was nothing in Santa Cruz for math-loving students like their son Andrew, so they started the Santa Cruz Math Circle.

Nami Brown

During the Covid-19 pandemic, participating students began building robots in their driveway. When more students wanted to participate, they rented space at Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz. That’s how X Academy was born.

Last year, the X Academy team qualified for the MATE ROV World Championship, which took place in Colorado, and placed fifth of 35 teams.

Andrew, who was on that team, is now a math major at UC Santa Barbara.

A conversation with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education led to this question: Can this robotics program expand to Watsonville?

With funding from the county office, Sylvester’s answer was “Yes.”

Expansion

Last fall, interest grew from 10 to 52, resulting in two teams, one meeting at Sequoia High School in Watsonville.

More than 40 students from 16 local schools participated — and the second team, the Angry Otters, for novice high school students, finished second in the regional competition in the Navigator class.

Sylvester is the head mentor. Meister is the organizer. They had support from 15 mentors, parents and professors.

“Parents are enthusiastic,” Sylvester said.

When one professor saw these high school making circuit boards and writing software, he told Sylvester, “This is what my kids do in college.”

Students sometimes stay up late, putting in extra time solving problems.

As the dinner hour approached Monday, Sylvester said, “The kids are at a pool right now testing the ROV.”

Dr. Faris Sabbah, Santa Cruz County superintendent of schools, provided this statement, “We are incredibly proud of the dedication and hard work of every student who entered the MATE ROV competition, and grateful to the X Academy for this impactful local partnership.”

The Hephaestus team met weekly, working all the complex steps toward creating their robot, and preparing it to enter the pool.

Now they will compete against 37 top teams from around the globe, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Hong Kong, to name a few.

The team needs $2,500 per student to attend the world championship, and aims to raise $40,000.

So far they have 56% of their goal, about $22,000.

Do you have interest in supporting the future of youth robotics in Santa Cruz County? To donate, see www.xacademy.org/ To be a sponsor, email [email protected]

This year’s World Championships will be broadcast via Twitch, with color commentary by a University of Washington professor. See https://materovcompetition.org/

To learn more about local robotics, see https://cs.santacruzcoe.org/robotics

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Editor Jondi Gumz contributed to this report.

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