In the first semester, November, the Robotics team entered the Madtown Throwdown in Madera. For the second semester of the school year, the Robotics team participated in the Silicon Valley Regional and Sacramento Regional in which they qualified for the World Championships in Houston. The goal of the competition, Rapid React, was to build a robot that collected “cargo” or balls and shot them into a hub hoop. Near the end, the robot “hangs”, a term for basically “doing monkey bars” for extra points. The features of the team’s robot include an intake system, turret, drivetrain, and climber.
We asked robotics members this year what their favorite moment this year was and a valuable skill they learned.
Stephen Xie, website lead, says, “my most valuable skill learned was collaboration”. His favorite moment was when he and the team were picked by the best teams 254 and 1678 to battle against other 3-group teams in the regional FIRST competition.
Keshav, part of the programming team, says his most valuable skill learned was “working on coding and making parts for the robot.” His favorite moment was in Houston in the pit, scouting and having fun. The world championship was a great bonding experience, especially for those who joined the team at the end of first semester and missed the first competitions.
Kartik, another programming member, says “I learned a lot in robotics with programming the different subsystems. I also have gained experience in both the mechanical and programming fields”. His favorite moment was meeting other different teams competing at the regional tournament.
Next year, according to various members of QLS Robotics, one thing the team is planning to do is to restructure the team and improve communication. These two improvements go hand in hand because a large team makes communication a lot harder. In the offseason, members are planning to hone their mechanical, and programming skills in preparation for next year.
The Roar 