Alabama Astrobotics took the top prize at the NASA Robotic Mining Competition, besting student teams from more than 50 other institutions in the challenge to build a robot capable of navigating and excavating simulated Martian soil, or regolith.
Made up of about 65 students from across eight disciplines including engineering and computer science, Alabama Astrobotics is the only team to win more than once in the nine-year history of the NASA contest, placing first in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and, now, 2018.
Huh, UA engineering students won the top prize in this NASA competition 4 years running over 50 other schools.
https://www.ua.edu/news/2018/05/four-in-a-row-for-ua-robotics-team/
I wonder how US news factored that in? Oh, they didn't.