Congratulations to the Mars Rover Team, part of the Stanford Student Robotics Club. The team won 3rd place in the 2019 University Rover Challenge (URC) competition which took place at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah. Thirty-four teams from 10 countries competed throughout various challenges in the Utah desert.

2018 was the first time Stanford Student Robotics participated in the MRC – they placed 34th, and began immediately planning for the 2019 competition. The execution of their planning paid off, earning 3rd place this year. First place went to the IMPULS team from Poland's Kielce University of Technology.

Placing 3rd, Stanford's Student Robotics Mars Rover Team moved up thirty-one spots!

The 2019 Stanford Student Robotics Mars Rover Team members include,

• Michal Adamkiewicz - Team Lead
• Claire Huang - Mechanics and Software
• Neil Movva - Electrical and Software
• Connor Tingley - Mechanical
• Connor Cremers - Mechanical and Software
• Rita Tlemcani - Mechanical and Science
• Amy Dunphy - Science
• Alan Tomusiak - Science
• Patin Inkaew - Mechanics
• Derian Williams - Electrical and Mechanics
• Jasmine Bayrooti - Software
• Julia Thompson - Science
• Mei-Lan Steimle - Science

As in past years, the teams and their rovers competed in four incredibly difficult and unique events,

• Science Mission (soil and rock samples),
• Extreme Retrieval and Delivery Mission,
• Equipment Servicing Mission, and
• Autonomous Traversal Mission.

"Reliability and ingenuity were the keys to success for several teams throughout the 3 day event," states the URC Mars Society website. Event judges included astrobiologists from NASA Ames Research Center.

Congratulations to all of the teams and participants! And an EXTRA congratulations to Stanford Student Robotics!