As per the request of my club advisor, a “paragraph” *cough* on this year’s build season and nationals
2007 FIRST Robotics Build Season and Championships
Before relating my experiences of this past year, I want to emphasize why I joined Clark’s robotics team. I came to Clark as a freshman who loved math, science, and technology, and being able to actually see how the robotics team worked and competed during the 2005 Los Angeles Regional convinced me that being on a FIRST team would be a truly rewarding experience.
By far, the greatest reward consisted of the many friends I was able to make during the two build seasons I have been a part of. I have friends from school that I communicate with about homework and other interests, but it’s rare to work with your friends for an intense 6-week period, while honing in on certain skills and developing new ones. Being able to work with the talented and bright minds of the future is really inspirational. In a team environment, there is no single person running the team. We all contribute, with our individual subsystems, and when someone struggles, others come to his or her aid. That’s what FIRST is about. It’s an educational experience that trains us for the real world, helping us to decide our future careers and allowing us to be able to work with other students and wonderful mentors, both of whom are vital to building a robot.
A person might ask why I am willing to give up so many valuable hours that I could be dedicating to other aspects of my life during this intense build season, especially during junior year. While other people are spending vacation at home, playing video games or studying for the ever looming AP tests, robotics members and I are at school, trying to resolve issues like stability in our robot’s pneumatics lifting.
Likewise, I wonder sometimes whether or not devoting so much time is really worth the effort, but the answer is that it is. My robotics friends have been an integral part of my life. They’re people that I truly respect and admire, after seeing them work for the past 2 build seasons. I’ve also had the privilege to work with many wonderful engineering mentors from JPL and elsewhere, the people I might aspire to become one day. I came into the club knowing so little about the roles of systems engineers, and even of my own little field of expertise on the electrical and programming team, but I’ve discovered that a person can possibly learn during a six-week build season than during an actual class at school. The build season is intense and can be quite stressful, but it’s hands-on and allows us to experience real-life situations. Robotics is about applying our knowledge while also learning new things.
The 2007 build season was different from last year’s season. Although the robot was essentially built the night before we had to ship it off, the product was evidence of this team’s success. One important lesson that we learned from last year was that it was crucial to prototype robot designs before finalizing any aspect of the robot. Only with such prototyping were we able to build a robot that worked, as evidenced by the incredibly high rate of success of the wings. This prototyping involved everyone on the team, from the mechanism designers and people who assembled the parts to the people who wired and programmed the mechanisms. Although this process took far more time than we had expected, it was again a learning experience, and I can say that many of us had fun doing so.
I thought our team had somewhat of a rough start to the build season, in the sense that it wasn’t united as a whole, but this improved all throughout the build season. Although interest waned at times, people still came through. We wouldn’t have been able to go to the championships in Atlanta without the support of everyone on the robotics team, mentors, parents, and sponsors.
This year was the first in which Clark’s robotics team won a regional, and it was an honor to be a part of the build season. We went to Los Angeles without having properly tested our completed robot, but because of all the careful designing and planning, our robot had little problems. We also had an incredible team consisting of our robot driver, our arm controller, and their coach, that was able to overcome the pressure during the heat of competition and become finalists at Los Angeles, while winning in San Diego.
San Diego was an interesting experience. I felt so at home with everyone, and it was the place for our teamwork to shine. We came into the regional with high expectations—everyone wanted to win the “blue banner”—and, although there were trying times like when the robot’s grabber mechanism stopped working, we were able to pull through and fix the problems with the support of the entire team, working together. I felt that San Diego was a time to bond. We had fun and experienced the moments as a team.
Then came the question of championships in Atlanta. I wondered to myself if making an extra trip was really beneficial. The team would be in an entirely new territory, and I would have to, once again, put my college preparations on hold. Due to the previous competitions, I had to miss an opportunity to take the SAT. By deciding to go to Atlanta, I would have to reschedule taking the ACT, not to mention the fact that I would have another 3 day’s worth of makeup work in addition to previous makeup work to catch up on. Yet, Atlanta would also be a once in a lifetime experience. It would give me a chance to compete and work with my senior robotics friends one last time before they leave for college. I felt that Atlanta was somewhat like a passing of the torch ceremony, and, even with all of the technical problems our team faced, it was.
Although I believe our team could’ve done better in Atlanta, I’m satisfied with our trip. We learned from our experiences with the robot. We learned about the importance of having a robust robot. Sometimes, luck just wasn’t on our side. Although we went to Atlanta without so much as the vigor that we had in San Diego, we came back feeling enlightened. Losing wasn’t as disheartening as I would have expected. We were able to cheer on the team that we allied with in San Diego, as they made it to the quarterfinals of the world championships. We were able to make friends with people from around the world, and compete with them. We were able to meet and talk to many inspirational people, including the cofounders of Apple and Youtube. We were able to see with our own eyes how one can put their creative minds to work and help others in need, as in the presentation from Dean Kamen and DARPA. FIRST Robotics isn’t all about learning to build robots. It’s about bettering yourself as a person and aspiring to helping the world.
Also, we were able to have fun and experience Atlanta. Many of us visited the world’s largest aquarium. We socialized at dinners, fought the forces of bad weather, played sports like basketball and tennis together, and just had an all-around great time.
Next year is going to be different. The seniors are leaving, and it will be like a new beginning. However, it will again be a time to grow, make new friends, and aim for success.
Participating in FIRST robotics is truly a life-changing experience that I will always be willing to experience again.
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