The True Story of the Latino Kids Who Beat MIT’s Best Robots, Coming Soon to Theaters

*An uplifting Friday morning read. I’m anxious to see this. VL

By WIRED

Ten years ago, contributing editor Joshua Davis received a press release that gave him pause. Clumsily formatted and full of typos, the email described an underwater robot competition, funded by NASA, in which four high school students in Phoenix, Arizona—three of them undocumented immigrants from Mexico—beat MIT to win gold. Davis picked up the phone to learn more.

That reportorial instinct turned into the WIRED story “La Vida Robot” (issue 13.04), which mentioned that three of the young men didn’t qualify for federal student loans because of their immigration status. WIRED readers eventually raised more than $90,000 in scholarships for Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Luis Aranda, and Lorenzo Santillan.

Now the story of those robot-builders has a new chapter. Spare Parts, starring George Lopez and Carlos PenaVega, opens in January …

Click HERE to read the full story.