Robotics joins FIRST

By Saisha Kumar

e Upper School Robotics

Team competed in the Central Valley Regional Tournament in Fresno on March 11 and 12. is year, the robotics team transitioned to For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a speci c style of robotics in which teams must build a robot that plays a game chosen by FIRST. e team attended the tournament in attempt to qualify for the FIRST World Championship Tournament held in Houston, Texas and will attend their second regional qualifying tournament on March 17-19. ey placed ninth in the quali cation matches and made it through the quarter nals and to the elimiation bracket. During the rst elimination round, the robot’s motors failed and the team was forced to withdraw from the competition.

Robotics Team member Matthew Ahn ’25 said the team has been preparing ever since the tournament game was released.

“We have been preparing for the tournament since Jan. 7, but have been preparing and learning to use new machinery since the start of the school year,” Ahn said. “Last year we built a robot for last season and attended a postseason tournament to learn the ropes.”

Robotics Team member Riyan Kadribegovic ’25 said there were many steps involved in developing a robot for the competition.

“Our rst step was to create a design for the robot, which took place over a few days, and then [we] started building,” Kadribegovic said. “In the past few weeks, to prepare, we’ve been ne-tuning wiring, coding the intake and the arm as well as practicing driving it.”

Kadribegovic said the team bene tted from the tournament.

“We learned a lot and grew as a team,” Kadribegovic said. “Since this is Harvard-Westlake’s rst FIRST tournament in six years, this tournament was a huge learning experience for us.”

Member of the Robotics Team Benjamin Ren ’24 said the team hopes to qualify for the FIRST World Championship at Los Angeles Regionals on March 17-19.

“I have high hopes for [Los Angeles Regionals] because last weekend was the rst ever regional that we’ve been to, and we did really well for our rst time,” Ren said. “I think for Los Angeles, we’d be more prepared, and I think we de nitely will be qualifying for Texas or Worlds this year.”