In real life, the Explorer division of the competition was not dominated by private universities, as in the movie. In fact, its entrants consisted of four high schools (including Carl Hayden), four community colleges, two public universities, and MIT. Three of the teams depicted in the movie—Cornell, Virginia Tech, and Duke—did not enter the 2004 MATE competition at all. They instead entered the 2004 RoboSub competition, where remote control was not allowed. All vehicles were required to be fully autonomous, navigating using sensors and software algorithms. In that competition, another team from MIT received first place, followed by Cornell in second.
