The Menlo robotics team won numerous awards at their most recent qualifier. In the picture, freshman Will Buxton is pointing out a robot to freshman Joseph Ma and junior Rebecca Ma during competition. Photo courtesy of Sally Li. 

By Kaitlyn Tom 

On Jan 16, two Menlo robotics teams, Team 3053 and 3055, competed in a qualifier tournament at Berean Christian High School in Walnut Creek for the First Tech Challenge robotics competition (FTC).

Team 3053, also called Knights Robotics, is captained by the Robotics Club founder and President, junior Lauren Yang, and is aided by co-captains junior Mina Mahmood, sophomore Tommy Yang, and junior Niky Arora.

At this past qualifier, Knights Robotics won the Think Award, which is given to teams who creatively solved engineering problems while maintaining excellent documentation of the design and build process throughout the season. Team 3053 also won the 3rd place Inspire Award, which is awarded to the best team overall in terms of community service, robot design, spirit, and professionalism.

Team 3055, captained by Rebecca Ma and co-captained by Mikalya Stabile, won the Motivate Award, which is awarded to teams with strong community service involvement.

Sophomore Atreya Iyer, who is a builder and a game strategist on Team 3055, thought that the community service they performed was different and unique. “We started setting up robotics programs outside the country, and we also held a seminar for kids at the Redwood city library,” Iyer said.

Team 3055 also had a very strong team dynamic. “Although many of us didn’t know each other at first, we really bonded as we got closer to the qualifier,” Iyer said.

Both teams meet two to three times a week regularly; however, during the week before the tournament they met every day after school. Their hard work paid off well in the tournament. “The first or second rounds when [our robot] worked [was exciting]. It was exciting because it got us some points and it worked! It was the first time our robot was in action and taking its first big step,” Mahmood said.

Knights Robotics credits their success to the division of labor within the team. “We have different roles on the team. We designate different parts and different jobs to different people,” Mahmood said.

Team 3053 also had a solid understanding of the science and math behind their robot design, which was reflected in their engineering notebook and helped them win the Think Award. The team’s dedication to record every meeting paid off. “We have an engineering notebook where one person is assigned to writing down what was done that meeting,” Tommy Yang said.

Team 3055 will be wrapping up its season soon, and Team 3053 will be competing at the NorCal tournament on Feb 27-28.

Tommy Yang, Lauren Yang, and Mahmood concentrate on driving the robot during a match. Photo courtesy of Sally Li.