Robotics Teams Shine at FIRST Tech Challenge

The Rolling Drones and Pink Droyd strategize on the field at John Dewey. *Photo: Chloe Li*

By SAMURAH ISLAM and SABRINE UDDIN

ZEEP! ZOOP!

The machine’s tiny screeches reverberate across the whole room. A glare bounces off its body as its silver-colored metal shines against the gym’s bright white light. As the Tetrix Ranger robot raises its arm and delicately lays the pixel onto the board, the audience erupts in excitement.

This was the scene as Midwood’s three robotics teams, The Rolling Drones, Botley Crue, and Pink Droyd, participated in the first qualifier of the season, the FIRST Tech Challenge at John Dewey High School on December 10. All three teams advanced to the Super Qualifier road.

Botley Crue also brought home a “Think Award” for removing engineering obstacles through creative thinking, while Pink Droyd placed in the winning alliances.

The FIRST Tech Challenge is where students in grades seven through twelve ally in teams to design, build, program, and operate robots in head-to-head competitions. Each team’s robot must fit inside an 18-inch sizing tool.

The primary scoring element is a plastic “pixel” shaped like a hexagon that comes in three different colors, with each having a different point value.

In the center of the playing field are two metal rods that come together to form a triangle known as a truss. A hinged stage door is located between the trusses. Players gain points by using their robot to push the pixel in the backdrops located at the back of the field.

Players use the taped lines outside the front wall to mark the landing zones, which enhance their total number of points.

“The end game is where it's most important, because it's where we're able to score 50 points from shooting at airplanes and hanging off the truss,” explained Chloe Li ’24, the co-leader of the Rolling Drones.

Shadman Shadath ’25, an audience member, said, “It was nerve-wracking, but I was also really excited to watch my friends compete in a close competition.”

Throughout the game, Pink Droyd had difficulties in gaining points. But after the third game, they began to see a difference thanks to blood, sweat, and tears — also known as strong alliances and excellent coordination.

“That was really the turning point after that,” said Joey Phan ’24, a builder on Pink Droyd.

These accomplishments weren’t easy. Each team member had to commit their time and effort preparing for the competition.

Li said, “We’ve been staying after school until 6 p.m., working really hard, and I feel like coming to this competition, we got to see our hard work pay off.”

Under the direction of Midwood's mechatronics / robotics teacher, Ms. Lisa Ali, the teams learn engineering concepts as well as the importance of perseverance, teamwork, and creativity.

“Everyone committed to their task, and they definitely did devote a lot of time and effort into contributing to their team and their overall success,” said Ms. Ali.

There were lots of problems to solve along the way.

“We worked on this component in the challenge where you have to hang your robot onto the trusses, so we tried using a linear slide system which basically would bring the robot up, but it wasn’t strong enough to hold the robot because it was really heavy,” said Charlotte Lee ’24, a programmer of the Rolling Drones. “We had to go through multiple designs in order to figure out how to hold the robot's weight.”

“We spent too much time on building,” said Li. “We finished our current build in about two weeks, but that didn't leave us enough time to really have a thorough autonomous code, which didn't allow us to score as many points as we wanted to within the first 30 seconds.”

“We had one type of arm that wasn’t working, so we had to work around it, and we only had one week until the competition,” said Andrew Bodnarchuck ’24, the electrical engineer and materials manager from Botley Crew.

Despite the hardships, the team worked together and persevered.

“I feel like it’s a relief going into the competition," said Kiki Teng ’25, the graphic designer on Pink Droyd. “We weren’t super confident because we knew that we still had a lot to improve on. However, we did talk to a lot of the teams there and were able to build a strong alliance.”

The teams’ performances earned tham all a spot in the Super Qualifiers in January.

“Overall, I think that they're very motivated and inspired to do even better,” Ms. Ali said. “I hope that we get to see that on the field in January.”