The Robotics team qualified for the semifinals at the First Tech Northern California Championship Tournament, but did not advance to the finals. The tournament was held on February 24 at Newark Memorial High School and consisted of 36 teams in total.
Co-captain Kourosh Arasteh was happy with the way his team finished. “We ended up with the PTC design award which is awarded to the team with the best, most efficient design,” he said. “Given the circumstances, we did our best, which is all we could hope for.”
Senior Joey Lederman said it was “unfortunate we didn’t get farther. We should’ve been paired with better alliances.” According to Lederman, in each of the 5 rounds, teams from different schools were randomly paired to work on the completion of a task together. “We carried most of our alliances and were the top scorer in our partner selections,” said Arasteh.
According to co-captain Matthew Stickle, the loss was a little disappointing. However, he was mainly satisfied with the team’s finishing place and PTC design award. “It ended on a strong note. We got to advance to the semifinals,” he said.
As a future junior and returning captain, Arasteh is looking forward to the Robotics club’s upcoming years. “There’s always room for improvement. I look forward to doing even better next year.” Stickle added, “We did significantly better than last year.”
With the competition season coming to a close, the Robotics Club will continue to meet, and is focusing on reaching out to incoming students in order to continue the club’s success. “We hope to do more outreach and demos. We’re demonstrating at Open House and at JM. Our hope is to foster a love for robotics,” said Arasteh.