Team C members and robotics advisors, from left to right, Molly Trouchon, Alejandro Chan-Artiga, Zahra Muhammad, Kim Knestrick, Vivian Mai, Dilraj Gill, Ian Berry and Alvin Ao.
By Jack Fedor
Co-Editor | The Pacific Times
NP3 High’s Robotics team will begin preparing for the 2022-23 season with tryouts this week.
Tryouts for people who build the robots and for people who program the robots are scheduled to take place this week, May 18-20. All students planning to try out must fill out an interest form by Tuesday.
More than 800 teams registered to compete in the tournament and NP3’s team held its own with five wins and five losses.
Looking back at the past season, Robotics team members had some memorable moments as well as some advice for those interested in trying out for next year’s team.
Team members said learning how to communicate with others, build a robot, think on their feet and create multiple solutions for a problem are the benefits of joining. They warned against joining just to be with friends because the majority of the work is student-driven.
“One of my favorite memories of the past year was going to the finals of one of our competitions at Ceres High School,” said sophomore Jireh Owen.
Owen said that he was surprised that Team D was able to go to the finals of a competition as all members on the team were new to the team this year.
“We had a really cool moment this year at a Florin High School competition where we were able to land our robot on a platform,” added freshman Arjun Balasa.
As the season continued Balasa said he learned to not mess with the program of the robot on the day of the competition as he was unable to fix some of the problems which arose.
“Changing the robot’s design, especially the lifting mechanism on the robot, was one of my favorite memories of this season,” said freshman Alvin Ao.
Ao said he liked how his team was able to gradually increase from finishing last in competitions to qualifying for quarter final rounds.
“My favorite memory from this season was when we took off our lift and the robot did not have anything but a base for that competition, however it was not successful,” said sophomore Vivian Mai.
Mai said she enjoyed the family that was created within the robotics team; she also enjoyed getting ideas from other teams.
Sophomore Mackaelan Songco who was a driver for the robotics team thought that driving was a fun job, but said it was also stressful because the team’s ranking depended on the driver’s performance.
“Making it to the finals in December was one of my good memories from the season because it was the most unexpected,” said Songco.
Songco enjoyed seeing how other teams’ robots and programs evolved throughout the season.
Added junior Zahra Muhammad, “I enjoyed the competitions even though they were tiring.”
The interest form for the 2022-23 Robotics team can be found on posters in student classrooms and in Kim Knestrick’s classroom (F-3). Just scan the QR Code to access the form.
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