Future Visions: Technology and Citizenship in Underwater Dreams

It is difficult to imagine screenwriters inventing characters and events more compelling for an underdog film about science and technology than those involving the Carl Hayden Community High School Falcons Robotics Team of 2004. First brought to national attention in a Wired magazine feature article, the story begins when two dedicated science teachers at a high school in a poor and crime-ridden neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona, start a robotics program to encourage hands-on learning within the areas of science, technology, and engineering, then enter four inexperienced teenagers and their handmade robot in a national underwater competition funded by organizations like NASA and the Office of Naval Research. Some stories beg to be told.

Directed by Mary Mazzio, the documentary Underwater Dreams (50 Eggs Films, 2014, 86 minutes) sets their tale against the fraught landscape of national debates about STEM education, immigration policy, and economic interests. The teachers enter the students in the top tier against colleges and universities—strictly as a morale-protecting strategy in the face of certain defeat—but the Hayden team wins the competition, defeating a team from MIT in the process. Despite the familiar narrative arc, one detail complicates any reliance on conventions of genre or definition: all the team members were brought as children into the United States from Mexico without documentation.

The film certainly begins like a conventional underdog story. “They didn’t know it, but it was a competition that would change everything,” says narrator Michael Peña. The four teenagers are endearing: Oscar Vazquez, a hardworking student and ROTC member; Luis Aranda, a quiet giant who carries the robot and handles the cable; Lorenzo Santillan, a former gang member with a mischievous streak and good mechanical skills; and Cristian Arcega, a brilliant loner with the brainpower and confidence to challenge experts. Even their robot seems typecast. Nicknamed “Stinky,” it’s an inexpensive, boxy contraption made out of polyvinyl chloride pipes, wires, and other bits. Every David needs a Goliath, of course, and a competing team of twelve engineering students from MIT convincingly fills this role. Although the MIT students are good-natured and generous, the stark contrasts between their impressive, machine-made robot of gleaming metal and Stinky emblematize the disparities. Generously funded by their university and corporate sponsor Exxon, the MIT robot looks like nothing less than a winner. The Hayden boys have many other disadvantages; through interviews with team members, teachers, and parents, the everyday challenges faced by undocumented immigrants begin to come into view.

The events of the competition unfold in three rounds, and although technical and scientific details are few and generally glossed over, it is a delight to witness the impossible become possible. Before the contest even begins, the Hayden team executes a cheap and effective hack that demonstrates the quick, out-of-the-box thinking that will serve them well: they fix a severe leaking problem by stuffing the main compartment with tampons purchased (with a great deal of anxiety) from a grocery store. A number of grueling challenges, interrogations, and inspections lead to a nail-biting finish with a stunning result: a high school team from a poor neighborhood in Arizona has beaten MIT.

The film then offers a denouement somewhat less tidy but more honest than the recognition, reward, and resolution typical of underdog dramas. The Hayden pioneers have created an impressive legacy: growing numbers of students wax enthusiastic about robotics and their futures, teachers continue to use competitions as a platform for science education, graduates go on to attend top universities, and some students have taken leadership roles in support of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act). Linking education to economic imperative, a series of scientific and technological innovators argue that existing policies affecting undocumented students waste STEM talent at a time when American competitiveness is in question. For the champions themselves, however, reality tempers triumph, and the film can only end on a melancholic note. While the MIT students went on to exciting opportunities, Cristian lost a full university scholarship after the passing of Proposition 300, and Oscar secured citizenship, but...