APTOS​ – The Aptos High School underwater robotics team has traveled across America, from Long Beach, California to Kingsport, Tennessee​—​competing against over 700 teams from 17 countries to earn international titles in 2017 and 2019. Each year, the team builds a robot that can navigate a variety of tasks reflecting the unique challenges that marine scientists face every day. The team also creates technical documentation, a marketing display, and a presentation for a panel of marine science experts.

It’s full steam ahead as the team gears up for the 2020 competition this June in Pennsylvania. After tackling the most advanced division in the MATE robotics program available to high school students, this season, they will compete against college students in the EXPLORER class. In this division, they face even more complex tasks, from building detachable mini-robots to programming autonomous technologies. “Almost every component takes several attempts before it works the way we want,” says Amelia Lovell, one of the team’s mechanical engineers, “so when it finally does, it feels amazing.”

The team spends hundreds of hours designing, prototyping, and testing every aspect of their robot in preparation for competition against top engineering colleges such as Purdue and Hong Kong University of Science. “Currently, our biggest challenge is funding,” notes Jacob Sandler, the team’s CEO. “It’s been an incredible opportunity to compete in this program, but covering our travel expenses will be difficult.”

Santa Cruz Works / Santa Cruz New Tech helped fund the two international title years 2017, 2019. Let’s do this again! In order to cover their expenses the team has started a GoFundMe​. You can also contact the team at ​sealteam1272@gmail.com​ or call 1-831-666-7749 for more information.