Congratulations to the Monash Nova Rover Team

Huge congratulations to Monash’s Nova Rover team, which has finished on the podium for the second year in a row, placing second among 37 teams from around the world in the University Rover Challenge (URC) in Utah, USA.

The 2023 Pink Rover “Waratah” - the colour of which was chosen to challenge the stereotype that women don’t belong in STEM spaces - excelled as it was put through its paces in four gruelling missions over three days at the Mars Desert Research Station.

Waratah scored consistently well across all tasks, especially the Science Mission and Equipment Service.  The result not only demonstrates the superior design and development of the Pink Rover, it also bears testimony to the brilliant performance of the team and its all-female leadership under the pressure of travel and competition, and to the quality of the support provided by academic and professional staff at Monash.

Organisers and judges of the URC loved the Pink Rover, going out of their way to photograph it, and tweeted that the pink paint job was “an awesome way to start a conversation about girls and women in STEM”.

The Monash Nova Rover team will now spend a short time in California visiting NASA’s Ames Research Centre and Jet Propulsion Laboratory before returning to Australia.