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Wilcox Robotics Team Qualifies for 2024-2025 FIRST Tech Challenge NorCal Regional Tournament

Long after high school corridors are silent and doors locked, certain home garages around Silicon Valley are buzzing like bee hives. Forgetting time (and occasionally homework), teenage robotics enthusiasts crowd inside them.

Members of high school and community robotics teams, they have been engrossed since last fall in the time-consuming challenge of designing, building, and programming robots to compete in the 2024-2025 FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) for 7th to 12th graders.

The 12 members of Robopocalypse, the Adrian Wilcox High School varsity robotics team #8872 in Santa Clara, put in two to four hours of work daily after school and sometimes in garages on weekends.

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At a qualifying tournament held at Saratoga High School on Jan. 12, Robopocalypse won the Inspire Award and second place overall—out of 27 teams, qualifying it to compete in the FTC NorCal Regional Tournament in late February. The Inspire Award is for being a strong FIRST ambassador and role model.

In April of 2024, Robopocalypse made it to the FTC World Championship competition in Houston, Texas. There, it won Inspire and Think (for engineering design and process) Awards.  Yet exciting as it is, there is more to robotics than winning.

“We’re very passionate about doing this stuff,” said Chloe Tran, one of two gals on the team. “Most of us are going into engineering or business. This involves math, technology and engineering. It opens doors for college and internships.”

“I’m not here to win,” said Robopocalypse co-founder and mentor Sudhanshu (Suds) Jain, an electrical engineer and Santa Clara City Council Member. “I’m here to make sure the kids learn and have a great experience designing robots. I consider that I’m succeeding if I prevent our smartest kids from becoming lawyers!”

An FTC robot—no larger than an 18-inch cube on wheels—is battery-powered. Its actions can be autonomous or directed by a hand-held teleoperator. Its folded arms are extended and retracted to accomplish tasks, called challenges.

The theme of the 2024-2025 FTC is “Into the Deep,” focusing on healthy oceans. Thus, robotics challenges relate to exploring life beneath the surface of the ocean in a fast-moving, two-minute and 30-second match.

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The action takes place in a 12-foot square ring (like a small boxing ring). The robot is programmed to pick up plastic blocks representing sea creatures and deposit them in either a low or a high basket—like a basketball slam dunk. It is also programmed to attach itself and hang from the bars of a metal structure in the middle of the ring.

Steve Parks is the father of Robopocalypse team captain E.J. Parks.

“It’s important for parents to be involved,” the proud dad said at the Jan. 12 tournament. “It’s a lot of work for the students to learn to balance school and robotics. They develop leadership skills and hand off knowledge to the next generation of robotics kids. They share the wisdom they learned from their mistakes.”

Roblivion, a freshman and sophomore Wilcox team, was begun in 2017. It is coached by the juniors and seniors, preparing the lower-class students to qualify for the varsity team.

The guys still outnumber the gals on most high school robotics teams. Junior Saanvi Kumara, one of the two gals on Robopocalypse, had words of wisdom for interested but hesitant gals.

“It’s really fun! It’s worth a try,” she said. “Follow your passion and pursue it. Give it a shot!”

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is the national nonprofit that oversees robotics competitions for students. It was founded in 1989 to draw students into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers by showing them that robotics is a fun, exciting field. Founders felt students were missing out on STEM careers because of a lack of exposure.

As Robopocalypse team co-founder and mentor Karen Hardy, a Wilcox math and computer science teacher and Santa Clara City Council Member, recalled it, “We started the team in 2014 because one of the students said, ‘Ms. Hardy, we need to have a robotics team!’ And in a fit of insanity, I said, ‘OK!’”

For Wilcox Robotics Club information, visit www.wilcox-robotics-team.com or email teamrobotics8872@gmail.com. Visit www.firstinspires.org for information about FIRST and www.norcalftc.org for FIRST in Northern California.

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