April 7th, 2023: Series 05
"We built the most complex robot we've ever built before. It was sort of a milestone for my team, we've always wanted to accomplish something so big, but we were never able to."
How do you think robotics and art overlap?
You kinda get to, like, express yourself and robotics. Like, I'm not a big artsy guy, but what I've seen from robotics is kids who are generally like really nerdy and stuff, and don't want to do much. But you, you get to see them sort of express themselves in how they want to build the robot, or how they want to design certain aspects. You'll see somebody come up with some really complex solution to something really stupid. But like, it'll work and the person will be so proud of it. I think that's, I know, I'm not a big guy on art, but I feel like that makes sense.
Describe your favorite build and what does it mean to you?
So every year we build a robot and we compete in a different game. So basically, there’s this big company, FTC. And every year they have a new game for the robot to compete in. And so in like the first year, you're stacking a bunch of bricks. This year, you're placing cones on poles. But um, I honestly think this year is probably my favorite build. We were able to switch from a really kind of a trash design to the beginning of the year, to this really cool new system. We built the most complex robot we've ever built before. It was sort of a milestone for my team, we've always wanted to accomplish something so big, but we were never able to. So this year, the fact that we were able to do it and still have budget leftover was kind of like a big thing for the team. And so that's probably my favorite build this year.
What are your favorite parts about Sage Creek’s robotic program? Is there anything you would change?
So, Sage Creek’s robotics problem program has like 100 kids. It's split up into four teams. And I really like that, even though there's so many people, each team is split up in a way that since we all meet at the same time, so that one big group meeting on Wednesdays and then we have our own private meetings on weekends. Like, I think the best part about that would be the fact that generally, teams aren't able to collaborate as much. But having four teams working in the same room, at the same time, on the same game, and like everyone's kind of getting like inspired off each other and riled up and trying to get as much done. That's a major advantage that I've seen at Sage Creek’s robotics program. Whereas other schools like Pacific Ridge, they have two teams that meet at different times to try and keep their work separate. Where at Sage Creek, it's like even though we're four separate teams, we’re like one massive team. Honestly, the only thing I would change is how often we meet. Like there’s only one meeting and it’s on Wednesdays for two hours. If that meeting was more often that would be like, even better for more collaboration.
Who or what inspires you and why are they important?
Basically, my freshman year there was a senior Nathan Pereira. The most advanced thing I had freshman year was in algebra two. That's it. And I was thinking of dropping it and just taking geometry again. But Nathan, like grabbed me. I literally remember because I had Spanish with Kramer, and Kramer is the head of the academic league team as well. And so um, he talked to me because I was doing well in Spanish and he saw that I was doing good in my other assignments. So he told Nathan to grab me during lunch and I remember Nathan literally grabbed me by my collar and dragged me to the room. And then he like forced me to sign up for academic league. And then from there, he was like, alright, come with me again. And then he took me to Moezzi’s room and then forced me to sign up for robotics. And then he just made me shadow him for a year. And basically I just got to see all the stuff he did. He was the robotics captain. And then, surprisingly, this year, I'm the robotics captain. He was president academic league and now I’m president. I'm like, I've kind of tried to follow in his footsteps. And I guess he's really important because he's, he like kickstarted my whole, like everything I did in high school and like, probably the major reason I have a bunch of these experiences that I have. And also I like really simp for him on Instagram. But he doesn't know that.
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