“The positive impact on FIRST Robotics Competition participants is gratifying and well documented. Over 88% have more interest in doing well in school and 92% are more interested in attending college.” stated FIRST Robotics Competition (https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc ).

The robotics team, is known as the Official Robotics Competition, and is based on a US competition. Competitors have to build a specific robot, depending on the rules and the challenge they are given. Teams from all over the world gather and compete against 54 other teams with the hope of classifying to the finals, the world championship.

“Combining the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. We call FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-school student participants call it ‘the hardest fun you’ll ever have,” stated FIRST Robotics Competition.

The robotics team is also known as the Colombian Innovation Program or CIP. Competitors are challenged to raise funds and create a “team brand” in order to build and program robots to play different field games against other groups.

Emiliano Mesa, a 12th grade robotics team member, said, “It was created about 2 years ago with the goal of uniting public schools and private schools and go to win the FRC competitions in the United States.”

“The future for the team is to have more and more students every year. Right now we have around 60 students were 20 of them are from public schools and hopefully next year we can build more and more teams,” said Julian Zuñiga, engineering teacher at TCS.

Every year these teams join together and compete against groups from all over the world. Their main goal is to get to the World Championship that is in Boston, yet they must first compete in the regional that is in Miami.

“This year is the First Power Up competition, it’s based on a computer game. The teams have to put some cubes on some balance beams and have the balance for their team for the longest time possible,” said Agustin Jaramillo, an 11th grade student who also is part of the robotics team.

Even though CIP is a exceptional project that involves high school students from all over the world, only one student from TCS is part of it. Jaramillo has poured his heart and soul into this project.

“I joined the team on 2016 and that year was the best year for the team. The competition was called First SteamWork and we had to put some gears on special rotors to get points. We stepped all the way forward to the semifinals… it was the best year we’ve ever had,” said Jaramillo.

CIP: closer than we think

The robotics team is an undervalued initiative that most TCS are not aware of. However, there is no doubt that the school grants everyone the opportunity to join. Although it’s often overlooked, the robotics team is more accessible than people think. Jaramillo has done excellent work, and is an example of the club’s success.

The first year after Jaramillo was introduced to the team, they had to place special gears on rotors, this is known as the FIRST STEAMWORK.

“I am the head of the design and mechanics branch. There are three branches in the team, programing, mechanics and marketing. What I do is mainly 3D renderings of the prototypes and then the building of the actual robot,” stated Jaramillo.

The robot’s design has been his greatest accomplishment and led the team to a successful run last championship. Jaramillo has also proven to been a deft contestant with and abundance of skills and contributions to his teammates.

As stated by Zuñiga, “[Working with Agustin] is very nice, he is very dedicated, he likes to work a lot.”

Life changing experience

Being part of this team has impacted the student’s lives enormously. They’ve got the chance to not only improve their mathematics and designing skills, but also their team working.

“For other students who have passed through CIP a couple of years ago they were able to get to the best universities in the world. We have students like Felipe Monsalve and Esteban that right now they are studying in MIT, they are in Stanford. They are also in Perdue and Georgia Tech,” said Zuñiga.

CIP creates a lot of opportunities for the students since they have the chance to meet new people and get into superior universities. Also when thinking about college applications this program can open doors for everyone. Students who are part of the robotics team can put these experiences into their resume, making it something universities can look at. Not only this but the FIRST Robotics Competition provides scholarships for competitors.

“About 35% of FIRST Scholarships can be used for any course of study, not just engineering,” stated by FIRST Robotics Competition.

Without a doubt, CIP is a program that impacts students’ lives not only in a positive but different way. This project is like no other since it helps students open their minds, become creative and think critically about their futures.

“I got to meet a lot of people on this team and during the competition in the US. I got to meet people at NASA, MIT, Microsoft and many universities that were happy to meet us and help us during this project,” stated Jaramillo.