Alumni, ISEF, Science Talent Search
Hacking a self-driving car
George Hotz is working on a futuristic technology. He’s designing a self-driving car 鈥斕齛nd trying to beat Tesla’s Mobileye and Google’s models. His听work on self-driving cars has been听听颈苍听听.
George said he did terribly in high school until he found science fairs, which allowed him to create things and compete against others. He’s a multi-year Intel ISEF finalist (2004, 2005, and 2007) and an Intel STS 2007 semifinalist.
Read the interview to find out more about the importance of hacking 鈥� and why science fairs were the best thing for George.
I hack computers and electronics to find out how they work and then make them work for me.听
HACK FIRST, QUESTION LATER:听I’m using off-the-shelf electronics to build a self-driving car.听The Grand Challenge teams (mentioned in the听Bloomberg听article) spent millions on their hardware and sensors.
I hack computers and electronics to find out how they work and then make them work for me.听The best people I know are self-taught, and the way a lot of these courses are taught is a quick way to get people frustrated and turned off 鈥斕齮oo much math and theory or too hand-holding and contrived.
MOTIVATION THROUGH COMPETITION:听The first year I competed [at Intel ISEF], I created a mapping robot which makes maps of rooms. I won nothing at Intel ISEF the first year, and I got to meet people better than me.
The second year at Intel ISEF I made the googler, which fetches objects in rooms. I improved a bit to 4th place.
After not making the trip the third year, I worked super hard on something incredible for the last year, where I created a holodeck, a swept surface 3D display.听In a lot of ways, the self-driving car is just another science fair project.
Though I do feel I owe a lot to Intel ISEF and the lab I worked in in my high school, they just had a lot of stuff and let me play with it, giving me guidance when I couldn’t get something to work.
I did terrible in high school until I found these science fairs. They were the best thing for me.
SCIENCE FAIRS OPEN THE DOOR TO CREATIVITY:听I did terrible in high school until I found these science fairs. They were the best thing for me.
The science fair was a stage you could show off on, and most importantly, it was a competition.听I could build things. And there was the salesmanship, too, that I loved.
