X Academy

The X Academy Robotics Team from Santa Cruz, CA competed in the 2023 MATE ROV Regional Competition on April 22 in Watsonville, CA --- and, incredibly, they won a coveted invitation to the World Championships! One of only two teams to advance, the students from X Academy couldn't be more excited and thankful for the honor and while they recognize that hard work and perseverance got them to this point, they also humbly appreciate that now the real work begins...and they need your help.

As a completely independent team, X Academy Robotics operates without direct support from any schools or sponsored facility. These dedicated students represent 5 different high schools from the region making X Academy one of only two high school robotics programs in the entire county. X Academy Robotics assembles at a rented maker space in Santa Cruz, founded with the mission of making enriching STEM programs, such as those readily available across Silicon Valley, accessible to students in Santa Cruz County.

MATE (for Marine Advanced Technology Education) is a program of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Marine Advanced Technology Center based at Monterey Peninsula College. The MATE World Championship takes place June 20-24 in Longmont, Co, and the X Academy team is raising funds to cover the expenses involved in improving the ROV and float as well as travel costs so the entire team can participate.

The 20th annual MATE ROV Competition[c] challenges youth and college-aged teams from around the world to engineer remote operated vehicles (ROV)s to perform critical work underwater, with simulations that involve wind turbine and floating solar installation, coral health monitoring and sensitive aquatic habitat restoration. Designing and building ROVs is a terrific learning platform for students as they work on a host of skills across applied robotics that are analogous to real-world conditions and use-cases better suited for technical robotics.

Teams compete with their ROVs as well as their performance as a startup responding to an RFP published by MATE each year. The 2023 challenge includes tasks such as stewarding coral reefs and endangered fish that align with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

X Academy Robotics CEO, 12th grade student Andrew Sylvester, leads a team including 9th through 12th grade students from Kirby School, Santa Cruz High School, Pacific Collegiate, Los Gatos HIgh School, and Ceiba College Prep Academy. The team designed its ROV, Talos III, and autonomous vertical profiling float, Vulcan II, using Fusion 360. Team members wrote the software, designed a custom circuit board and 3-D printed and laser cut numerous other custom parts. Go Team! and Best of Luck at the World's!

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The X Academy, is a Santa Cruz 501 c 3 non-profit organization and your donation is tax-deductible.