Wikipedia

Mark Rober

Mark Rober is an American YouTuber, engineer, inventor, and educator. He is known for his YouTube videos on popular science and do-it-yourself gadgets. Before he became a YouTuber, Rober was an engineer with NASA for nine years, where he spent seven years working on the Curiosity rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He later worked for four years at Apple Inc. as a product designer in their Special Projects Group, where he authored patents involving virtual reality in self-driving cars.

Mark Rober
Rober in 2024
Alma mater
Occupations
Known for
Children1
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011–present
GenreScience & Technology
Subscribers59.6 million[1][2]
Total views8.48 billion[3][2]
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers2014
1,000,000 subscribers2016
10,000,000 subscribers2019
50,000,000 subscribers2024
Last updated: November 23, 2024

Early life and education

Rober was raised in Brea, California, the youngest of three siblings. He graduated from Brea Olinda High School in 1998.[4][5] He became interested in engineering at a young age, making a pair of goggles that helped avoid eye irritation while cutting onions.[6] Rober graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He later earned a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2014.[7]

Career

Early career (NASA)

Rober joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 2004.[8] He worked there for nine years, seven of which were spent working on the Curiosity rover, which is now on Mars.[7] He designed and delivered hardware on several JPL missions, including AMT, GRAIL, SMAP, and Mars Science Laboratory.[9] While at NASA, Rober was one of the primary architects for "JPL Wired", which was a comprehensive knowledge capture wiki.[9] He published a case study about applying wiki technology in a high-tech organization to develop an "Intrapedia" for the capture of corporate knowledge.[10]

YouTube channel, science communication

While at NASA, Rober began making viral videos.[6] His videos cover a wide variety of topics, sparking ideas for April Fools' Day pranks[11][12] and teaching about beating an escape room and filming primates in zoos non-invasively.[6] He also advocates for science in many of his videos.[13][14][15]

In October 2011, Rober recorded his first YouTube video. It shows a Halloween costume that used two iPads to create the illusion of seeing through his body.[16] His video of the "gaping hole in torso" costume went viral, receiving 1.5 million views in one day.[17][18] The following year, Rober launched Digital Dudz, an online Halloween costume company that specializes in Halloween costumes based on the same concept as the video (to which Rober holds the patent). The company took in $250,000 in revenue in its first three weeks of operations, and by 2013 his app-integrated costumes were sold in retail stores such as Party City.[16][19][20] The costumes were widely featured on news channels such as CBS News, CNN, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Fox, Yahoo! News, Discovery Channel, The Today Show and GMA.[21] He sold the company to UK-based costume company Morphsuits in 2013.[19]

Demonstration of Mark Rober's glitter bomb

In December 2018, Rober posted a video showing how he tricked parcel thieves with an engineered contraption that sprayed glitter on the thieves, emitted a foul odor, and captured video of the thieves.[22][23] The video went viral, receiving 25 million views in one day. Rober later removed two of the five incidents caught on tape after discovering that two of the thieves were actually friends of a person he hired to help catch the package thieves.[23][24] Rober posted a follow-up in December 2019, teaming up with Macaulay Culkin and featuring an improved design.[25] Rober would post another follow up a year later with a third edition of the bomb.[26] While designing it, Rober collaborated with Jim Browning, Scammer Payback, and various state and federal authorities to use the glitter-bomb bait package as a tactic to track and arrest money mules and their supervisors, who were working with scamming call centers in India to rob elderly people of thousands of dollars. This was in conjunction with a multi-Youtuber movement to get back at and shut down scam callers, while raising awareness to prevent other people from being scammed.[27] The videos resulted in the shutdown of these call centers and the arrest of 15 senior officials involved in the scams.[28]

In 2021, Rober released the video Backyard Squirrel Maze, showing a backyard obstacle course he built to deter squirrels from stealing food from his bird feeders. He released a follow-up video of an updated obstacle course a year later. By September 2023, the original video had 114 million views; the second video, 80 million and the third, 25 million.[29]

Rober has contributed articles to Men's Health,[30] and gave a TEDx presentation in 2015 How to Come Up with Good Ideas[7] and another one entitled The Super Mario Effect – Tricking Your Brain into Learning More.[31] He has also made numerous appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!,[11] including guest-hosting the show in July 2022.[32]

In 2018, it was reported that Rober had been secretly working on virtual reality projects for Apple Inc.,[33] including the company's on-board entertainment for self-driving cars, for which Rober wrote two virtual reality-related patents.[34] Rober worked as a product designer in Apple's Special Projects Group from 2015 to early 2020.[35] In 2020, Rober starred in a Discovery Channel hidden-camera show Revengineers alongside Jimmy Kimmel.[29] He also starred in the series This is Mark Rober on Discovery.[36]

In October 2019, MrBeast and Rober released a project labeled #TeamTrees, after a tweet that suggested that MrBeast should plant 20 million trees. MrBeast and Rober worked with YouTubers across the globe in an effort to make this come true. The goal was to raise $20,000,000 for the Arbor Day Foundation by 2020, while the Arbor Day Foundation would plant one tree for each dollar raised.[37] In 2021, he founded #TeamSeas with MrBeast, which raised over $34 million to clean up beaches and seas, along with removing one pound of trash for each dollar donated, with help from The Ocean Cleanup.[38]

CrunchLabs

Rober is the founder of CrunchLabs, an educational technology company he launched in 2022. The company creates hands-on STEM learning experiences and subscription box services (known as CrunchLabs Build Boxes) that contain building projects and engineering challenges for children.[29][39]

Personal life

Rober moved to Sunnyvale, California, in 2015.[35] Rober is an advocate for autism awareness, as his son is autistic.[40] In April 2021, Rober and Jimmy Kimmel hosted a live stream, raising $3 million in support of NEXT for AUTISM.[41] In September 2024, Rober posted on X that he had been divorced for three and a half years.[42]

Awards and nominations

In 2021, the Institution of Engineering and Technology awarded Rober a one-off prize as STEM Personality of the Year[43] and later named him an Honorary Fellow in recognition of his contribution to the engineering profession.[44]

Rober also delivered the 2023 commencement address at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[45]

In 2024, Rober was presented with the FIRST Robotics Competition Founder's Award at the FIRST Championship in recognition of his efforts to expand access to STEM education and robotics programs.[46]

Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref.
2018 8th Streamy Awards Science or Education Mark Rober Nominated [47]
2019 9th Streamy Awards Won [48]
2020 10th Streamy Awards Learning and Education Won [49]
Nonprofit or NGO Team Trees (Mark Rober and MrBeast) Won
2021 11th Streamy Awards Science and Engineering Mark Rober Won [50]
Nonprofit or NGO NEXT for AUTISM's Color the Spectrum LIVE[a]
(Mark Rober and Jimmy Kimmel) 		Won
2022 26th Webby Awards Webby Film & Video Person of the Year Mark Rober Won [51]
12th Streamy Awards Creator of the Year Nominated [52]
Science and Engineering Won
Collaboration Mark Rober, Jim Browning, and Trilogy Media[b] Won
Social Good: Creator Team Seas (Mark Rober and MrBeast) Won
Brand Engagement Won
Social Impact Campaign Nominated
2023 13th Streamy Awards Science and Engineering Mark Rober Nominated [53]
Creator Product CrunchLabs Nominated

Notes

  1. ^ Live stream hosted by Rober and Jimmy Kimmel
  2. ^ Video entitled "Pranks Destroy Scam Callers - GlitterBomb Payback"

References

  1. ^ "About". YouTuber. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "About Mark Rober". YouTube.
  3. ^ "About". SocialBlade. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  4. ^ "Meet Mr. Curiosity". Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  5. ^ "Brea grad blasts record with Nerf gun". August 18, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Hart, Hugh (February 16, 2012). "Dirt-Cheap iPhone Trick Captures Great Ape Close-Ups". Wired. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c TEDx Talks (July 2, 2015). "How To Come Up With Good Ideas – Mark Rober – TEDxYouth@ColumbiaSC". YouTube. Archived from the original on May 30, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  8. ^ Diaz, Jesus (August 16, 2012). "Seven Years In the Life of One of the Engineers of the Mars Curiosity Rover". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  9. ^ a b Verville, Jon; Jones, Patricia M.; Rober, Mark (November 4, 2011). "Why Wikis at NASA?". NASA. Archived from the original on March 31, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  10. ^ Rober, Mark B.; Cooper, Lynne P. (2011). "Capturing Knowledge via an "Intrapedia": A Case Study" (PDF). Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE. pp. 1–10. ISSN 1530-1605. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  11. ^ a b Worland, Justin (March 31, 2016). "Let a NASA Nerd Show You Some Easy and Awesome April Fools' Pranks". Time. Archived from the original on January 30, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  12. ^ Spence, Shay (September 3, 2015). "Skinning a Watermelon Is Your New Labor Day Party Trick". People. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  13. ^ Fink, Jenni (July 29, 2019). "Shark Week Fact Vs. Fiction: Former NASA Engineer Tests If Sharks Can Smell a Drop of Blood in Ocean". Newsweek. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  14. ^ Stewart, Jessica (December 4, 2017). "Ex-NASA Engineer Uses Science to Transform Hot Tub Full of Sand into "Liquid Soup"". My Modern Met. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  15. ^ Future of Philanthropy (March 12, 2019). "How Bill Gates ended up eating pizza rolls on YouTube". Fast Company. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  16. ^ a b Shubber, Kadhim (August 23, 2013). "Mark Rober left Nasa to make awesome wearable tech Halloween costumes". Wired UK. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  17. ^ Johnson, Charity (October 2, 2015). "Go Hi-Tech This Halloween With These DIY Costume Videos". Tech Times. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  18. ^ Kelly, Heather (October 18, 2013). "Smartphone wounds and other high-tech Halloween tricks". CNN. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  19. ^ a b Clark, Patrick (October 18, 2013). "A NASA Engineer Builds a Better Halloween Costume". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on May 11, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  20. ^ Pepitone, Julianne (December 12, 2014). "Digitally animated ugly Christmas sweaters bring the kitsch to a new level". Today. Archived from the original on April 10, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  21. ^ Digital Dudz (January 18, 2014). "Select Digital Dudz Media Coverage 2013– Incld GMA, TODAY, Leno, Miley". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 24, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  22. ^ Kleinman, Zoe (December 18, 2018). "Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves". BBC News. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  23. ^ a b Shannon, Joel (January 23, 2019). "Viral glitter bomb video featured fake thieves, creator admits in apology". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 24, 2019. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  24. ^ "A glitter bomb makes for sweet revenge on a package thief". Considerable. January 23, 2019. Archived from the original on January 24, 2019. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  25. ^ Scribner, Herb (December 18, 2019). "BYU grad and former NASA engineer teams with Macaulay Culkin for new viral decoy porch prank". Deseret News. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  26. ^ Burton, Bonnie. "Ex-NASA engineer builds exploding glitter bomb to catch package thieves". CNET. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  27. ^ Webster, Sophie (April 24, 2021). "Mark Rober, a Former NASA Scientist Turned YouTuber Content Creator That Engineered Glitterbomb Packages". Tech Times. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  28. ^ Joshi, Sonam (May 29, 2022). "How four international YouTube sleuths teamed up to expose call centre scams in Kolkata". The Times of India. Archived from the original on March 1, 2023. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  29. ^ a b c Gordon, Devin (August 9, 2022). "How Mark Rober became the Willy Wonka of engineering". Fast Company. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  30. ^ "Author: Mark Rober". Men's Health. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  31. ^ TEDx Talks (May 31, 2018), The Super Mario Effect – Tricking Your Brain into Learning More | Mark Rober | TEDxPenn, archived from the original on October 29, 2018, retrieved October 29, 2018
  32. ^ "Jimmy Kimmel Live Schedule for the Week of 7/11/2022". abc.com. July 8, 2022. Archived from the original on July 15, 2022. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  33. ^ Roettgers, Janko (June 26, 2018). "YouTuber Mark Rober Secretly Develops VR for Self-Driving Cars for Apple (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on February 17, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  34. ^ Aiello, Chloe (June 26, 2018). "A YouTube star with more than 3 million followers has reportedly been working at Apple in secret". CNBC. Archived from the original on February 17, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  35. ^ a b Towne, Erika (February 5, 2020). "Sunnyvale Resident Glitter Bombs Package Thieves, Gets Discovery Channel Show". The Silicon Valley Voice. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  36. ^ "All-new series "This is Mark Rober" and "Revengineers" Featuring Youtube Phenom Mark Rober Premiere on Discovery in April". Warner Bros Discovery. April 6, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  37. ^ "#teamtrees". Archived from the original on May 17, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  38. ^ Halder, Rituraj (December 5, 2022). "Millionaire MrBeast Wins Big For His Philanthropic Work At YouTube Streamy Awards 2022 – 'Creator for Social Good'". Essentially Sports. Archived from the original on March 4, 2023. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  39. ^ Sudborough, Susannah. "Here's the life advice YouTuber Mark Rober gave to MIT's 2023 graduates". Boston.com. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  40. ^ Rober, Mark [@MarkRober] (April 2, 2018). "Happy Autism awareness day/month. The best part of my day is the 20-minute nighttime routine with my son and his stuffed animals. Repetition doesn't bother him (in fact he prefers it) so my same jokes totally kill every night" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  41. ^ "Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, Charlize Theron and More Help Raise $3M for Next for Autism". The Hollywood Reporter. April 30, 2021. Archived from the original on March 4, 2023. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  42. ^ Rober, Mark [@MarkRober] (September 15, 2024). "For the sake of clarity, I generally keep my personal life pretty private for my own protection and those close to me. But yeah it's been 3.5 years since the divorce where I haven't worn a wedding ring in any videos" (Tweet). Retrieved September 15, 2024 – via Twitter.
  43. ^ "27 April 2021: IET crowns STEM Personalities of the Year - The IET". www.theiet.org. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  44. ^ "IET launches Sustainable Community Competition". The Institute of Engineering and Technology. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  45. ^ Wren, Kathy (December 8, 2022). "Mark Rober to deliver MIT's 2023 Commencement address". MIT News. Archived from the original on June 2, 2023. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  46. ^ "FIRST Championship Awards". frc-events.firstinspires.org. Retrieved April 20, 2024.
  47. ^ "8th Annual Winners". Streamy Awards. Archived from the original on November 25, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  48. ^ "9th Annual Winners". Streamy Awards. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  49. ^ "10th Annual Winners". Streamy Awards. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  50. ^ "11th Annual Winners". Streamy Awards. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  51. ^ "Webby Film & Video Person of the Year". Webby Awards. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  52. ^ "12th Annual Winners". Streamy Awards. Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  53. ^ "13th Annual Streamy Winners". The Streamy Awards. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
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