The Robots Team Reflects on a Successful Start to the Season as they Set out Towards Upcoming Competitions

*The Team working on and finalizing one of the arm designs.*

BOSTON, MASS - A new fall for Robotics means a new theme to challenge the team’s way of thinking. This season, the thought on the robotics team’s minds has been ‘Into the Deep’.

Robotics has been a long-time club at Newman that allows students to get involved in STEM, specifically engineering and coding. It gives an opportunity to meet and compete against other schools while constantly improving on our own designs as well. Mr. Simon Huynh, mathematics teacher at the school has also been a very dedicated Robotics coach as he starts his second year with the team. The team constantly mentions and shows appreciation for his leadership and constant support every meeting and competition.

This year, the team has largely grown, obtaining more than half of the team in new members, with many seventh graders joining. Another change was expanding into a team and a club where team members go to competitions and every meeting and club members to the co-curricular block to learn more about robotics. “The increase in size and commitment has had a big positive impact. Last year, we were just getting started with a smaller, less experienced team. This year, we have a larger group of passionate students who are dedicated to making the team stronger. The enthusiasm is evident as our team meetings are full of energy, and everyone is eager to learn and contribute,” Mr. Huynh commented.

Being part of a nonprofit organization called FIRST, each year, robotics teams are given a theme, and a different game challenge for what the robot should be able to do, depending on age grouping. There is a FIRST lego league and its respective branches for younger children, the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) working with metal pieces rather than legos, however, it still must be meeting the 18 x 18 x 18 inches, also depending on specific competition guidelines. Finally, there is also the FIRST robotics challenge for high schoolers where they strive to make very large robots where the robot may be up to 4 ft. Our team participates in FTC.

*The Robotics team working on finding the best arm choice as well as taking apart the old robot from last year.*

This year's theme is ocean focused and the FTC challenge involved having the robot reach to hang and drop game pieces, as would trash be picked from the oceans. Many team members enjoy the ability to brainstorm together, Arjun Rastogi ‘29 commented “[Robotics is] overall a very fun experience where we get to work together and create innovative ideas,” However, robotics can also prove to be difficult at times when a lot of trial and error is involved.” Many team members struggle to find certain pieces or integrate ideas into a design.

Despite this, Mr. Huynh always encourages the team to keep going, he mentioned, “I want the students to learn that robotics is about persistence, creativity, and collaboration. It is important to me that they feel empowered to face any problem head-on without fearing that things won't work out, knowing they have a team behind them. I also want them to understand that success comes from dedication and a willingness to continuously improve.”

Many share excitement for what’s to come, especially as the robot starts inching towards being complete and as competitions and scrimmages start coming into view as well. With all the excitement shared as well as hopes of winning at least one award, Mr. Huynh added the message that he hopes the team won’t forget: “The robotics program is about more than just building robots; it’s about building a supportive community. It’s been great to see the students not only developing technical skills but also forming friendships and supporting each other,”. Hopefully, this collaborative and supporting spirit stays with the team as they continue throughout their season.

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