Inside two MIT students’ historic BattleBots runs

In the match, MIT PhD student Ginger Schmidt became the first female captain (in this case, co-captain) to win the competition. As Du, Schmidt, and a slew of their MIT-affiliated companions compete against each other this season, they’re maintaining a supportive relationship. “We have a really strong BattleBots community at MIT,” Schmidt says. She recruited MIT alumnus John Mayo SM ’16 along with current MIT graduate student Natha “Bam” Singhasaneh. “BattleBots aligns with MIT because you’re building something with the intention of testing it to its very limit,” Schmidt says.