The FRC team is meeting everyday afternoon and on Saturdays morning for more than 3 hours in the school’s new Makerspace preparing for their competition in Miami on March 1.

The competition occurs in South Florida, Palm Beach where the team will compete against 100 other teams from all around the world. They are currently working on the preparation and making of the robot. The robot’s purpose is to stack cones, move, and have stability on a ramp. 

“The workload, stress, and personal growth that the competition brings makes it one of the highlights of my academic year. I’m excited that the season has begun and that we are finally working on the robot,” Emilia Quintero, Grade 10, said.

This year they have high expectations, since last year, the team made history by reaching the semi-finals and winning the Entrepreneurship Award. This year’s robot includes a more complex system, which means that they are expecting better results. 

“Last year that competition was excellent. We loved it. It was a great experience. We learned about how other people use robotics in different parts of our community.” Pablo Arango, Grade 11, said.

The team has faced different challenges that they have had to overcome in order to attend the competition. The main problems have been the shortage of materials, sponsors, and time. The team made a bake-sale to gather money for the materials needed.

They additionally overcame the time limitations by meeting more hours and days throughout the week and by meeting on Saturdays. The marketing team reached out to many potential sponsors and did their best to get them into the team. 

“It’s quite stressful because materials are hard to gather. We’re constantly working as a team in order to get this robot ready and we have a few days. It’s quite stressful, but we know that it’ll eventually be a success,” Felipe Franco, Grade 10, said.

Creating a fully functioning robot can be one of the biggest challenges, especially if it has to stand out against 100 other robots. The members use 5 steps to prepare for victory; identify the problem, find inspiration, design, build, and test. 

“Everyone has a role in order to assure that the process works out properly. If one of us we need together as a team because if one of us doesn’t commit to a challenge we can all fail,” Pablo Escandon, Grade 11, said.

This year, the robot has to complete two missions. The first mission is to make the robot balance on a moving ramp. The second is to pick up cones and cubes and put them on a shelf that has three levels that vary in height.

“We are feeling extremely stressed and tired, we are somewhat behind and have huge amounts of work left. Even though sometimes I want to give up due to the complexity of the challenge, it will all be worth it when our robot goes out to the court in the competition,” Quintero said.

This week the FRC team departed for Miami, two days before the competition to test the robot for the competition on March 1. Based on their previous competitions they have high hopes of both winning and learning. 

“I feel nervous and scared but I’m also very proud of what we’ve accomplished. All I know is that we’re going to learn a lot and it’s going to be a very meaningful experience for us,” Arango said.