Nearly 40 students throughout The William S. Hart Union High School District are scheduled to host a robot showcase on May 17 at West Ranch High School from 1 to 3 p.m.
As a part of Project 691, students will demonstrate the robot that was built in over 150 hours in the past four months, while encouraging aspiring engineers to join the club next year.
“We worked super hard on the robot. We went to one competition, and I think it’s the amount of time that we put in — we put in effort into building the robot, and I’m personally really proud of it, and I think the team is really proud of it. We’re super excited to show it off,” said West Ranch junior Lisa Magnavey, 18.
According to Magnavey, the theme was indicated in January by FIRST Robotics (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), “a global nonprofit organization that prepares young people for the future through a suite of life-changing youth robotics programs,” according to its website.
“We’re a FIRST Robotics team, and every year they give us a new prompt to build the robot. This year’s theme was underwater. There was a coral you could score on different levels. There was algae that you could use to score. Basically, our robot was able to take coral from the human intake solution,” Magnavey said. “We’re working on an autonomous function for it too, but it’s mostly driven by a human player.”
As a first-year member of the club, Magnavey encourages others to learn more about opportunities for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in high school.
“We just want new people coming in, like members of the community, and we just want people to be aware and spread our message of being a STEM club,” Magnavey said. “This is a great opportunity for students to come and experience things like this, hands-on kind of building, experience with a robot.”
