The engineering department has started their preparation for the nationally recognized  robotics competition, First Robotics.

On Nov. 13 the robotics team participated in the Mini Maker Fair at Barnes and Noble in Sunset where, the team touted the basics of engineering to young kids. This was the first time the school has participated in this event.
“This was very beneficial towards preparing for the competition as First Robotics always puts an emphasis on community outreach,” said junior Sara Fuenmayor.

The idea of the First Robotics competition is to build a robot that will be successful in that year’s game. Every year, the game is released on Jan. 9, and every team in the world has six weeks to design and build a robot that will be successful in the competition. Teams score points by completing various tasks. However, that is not the only part of the competition that is important. During regional and later events, judges are walking around and evaluating teams on aspects like their cooperation with other teams and their safety.

“First Robotics is a robotics competition nationwide, however it is more than just robotics itself, as you are judged on lots of other categories, they are in some ways intangible such as their grading of teams on how they cooperate with each other and with other teams, and how they show professionalism,” said Mr. Carballo who is one of the key officials in the program.

All of these different components are taken into account when the judges decide what awards to give each team.

The team last year showed a lot of poise for a rookie team which led them to winning the award for the most inspiring rookie team of the competition in Fort Lauderdale.

Many departments are helping with the robot’s creation including the business department, which focuses on making a budget and business plan to go along with the mechanics of the machine.

“This is my second year working with First Robotics, and I hope we can improve on last year and build on the positives from our first year,” said junior Nicholas Atkison, who focuses on the business side of the competition.

In addition to the business department the program takes some students from Biomedical Sciences and computer programming to help out with the project. All of these different perspectives look to improve on the successes of their rookie season, as many students from last year return and look to help the ones who are new to first robotics.

“I think we have a lot of potential to succeed this year in first robotics and our team has been really getting along together in the early stages of the process,” said junior Ella Wahlestedt.

A lot of effort and time is put it into the process, as the team meets nearly every weekday to discuss and work on the project, in addition to sometimes working on the weekends.