Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

A Team of DREAMers and a Robot Named “Stinky”

The White House celebrated National Robotics Week last week, highlighting the importance of diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and stressing the need to advance President Obama’s efforts to reform our broken immigration system.

On Tuesday, April 7, the White House hosted more than 100 students from as far away as California at a screening of the movie Underwater Dreams, kicking off screenings in thousands of classrooms across the country. This documentary follows a team of undocumented students from Carl Hayden High School in Arizona and their underwater robot, “Stinky” -- a story that proves that science can -- and should -- be for all of us. With perseverance, ingenuity, and the support of their teachers and community, the young DREAMers in the film, Cristian Arcega, Luis Aranda, Lorenzo Santillan, and Oscar Vazquez, challenged some of the best engineering teams in the country -- and won! To complete the exciting and inspiring day, President Obama introduced the film with a video message that underscored the extraordinary contributions immigrants have made to keep America competitive and on the cutting edge. Watch it here:

These pioneering robotics teammates, who are now continuing their education and earning a living here in the United States, joined the students and spoke to them about the challenges they faced as immigrants. One of their challengers from the robotics competition participated in this reunion as well! The Carl Hayden team’s passion for exploring, tinkering, and constructing a robot transformed the idea of engineering from an abstract concept to something tangible they could master, all while in high school. Engineering changed their lives, and the lives of their families and communities, forever.

Another special guest, NASA’s very own fist-bumping robot-astronaut “RoboNaut,” joined the Underwater Dreams team in providing inspiration for the science enthusiasts in the room -- young and old.

And yet another student/teacher team attended the screening: the White House’s very own engineering expert, Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, and her former advisor Dr. Woodie Flowers. Dr. Flowers created the FIRST Robotics Challenge -- a nationwide program that students from Carl Hayden participate in to this day. In fact, there’s so much excitement about robots and engineering at Carl Hayden that the school sent a team to demo their robot for President Obama at the White House Science Fair in March 2015.

Richard Voyles is the Assistant Director for Robotics and Cyber-Physical Systems at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Rafael Lopez is a Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Announcing a Week of Making this June 12-18

President Obama chats with Sandra Richter, while sitting on the solar-powered bench she designed that charges mobile phones. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Last year, on June 18, President Obama hosted the first-ever White House Maker Faire and issued a call to action that “every company, every college, every community, every citizen joins us as we lift up makers and builders and doers across the country.” By democratizing the tools and skills necessary to design and make just about anything, Maker-related events and activities can inspire more people to pursue careers in design, advanced manufacturing, and the related fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and possibly take their creations to the next level and become entrepreneurs.

Today, in preparation of the one-year anniversary of last year’s Faire, we are excited to announce that the White House will celebrate a “Week of Making” this summer from June 12-18. The week will coincide with the National Maker Faire here in D.C., featuring makers from across the country and will include participation by federal agencies including: the Department of Education, National Science Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Small Business Administration, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NASA, Corporation for National and Community Service, Department of Homeland Security and the Smithsonian.

At last year’s Faire, President Obama welcomed people of all ages who are funneling their ingenuity into amazing projects, developing creative solutions to important problems and bringing their innovations to market. He met Lindsay Lawlor, who built a 17-foot, talking robotic giraffe named Russell, and he met teenage sisters Camille and Genevieve Betty, whose motto is “Who needs a paper route when you can start your own robotics company?” He talked to entrepreneurs such as Marc Roth, who was homeless in San Francisco before taking classes in design and prototyping at a digital fabrication studio and maker space. After only several months of classes, Marc was able to open his own custom laser-cutting business. As the President put it, “Today’s D.I.Y is tomorrow’s Made in America.”