26 Nov TAMS student led USA team that won international robotics competition

Austin Liu, a 16-year-old student at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, led Team USA in winning an international robotics competition recently with a robot called “the plastic pirate.”

The team designed the little water robot to power through Texas ponds, lakes and reservoirs and pick up plastic pollution. Then, like an electronic retriever, the robot heads back to shore with booty that can be either recycled or properly disposed of.

The plastic pirate could lead to an invention that could tackle ocean trash, but as for this iteration, Liu said it’s not seaworthy.

“But there’s a lot of pollution in other bodies of water in Texas,” he said.