A competition featuring some of the most eligible robotic teams across the state of California, Diamond Bar High School’s Sprocket team hosted its annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge (FTC), at our school’s gym.
Led by Sprocket’s Outreach and Awards team, the two-day event, from January 24th to 25th, featured middle school and high school teams, each given the opportunity to present their student-built robots before a panel of judges. Over sixty clubs participated, but only ten will be selected to move on to the FIRST Robotics World Championship starting in April of this year.
Participants are not only judged for their robot designs, techniques and composition, but also evaluated on their teamwork, creativity and engineering practices. Robot judges observed the overall outward appearance and build of the teams’ projects, while outreach and business judges specifically oversaw teams’ community impact—assessing their portfolios, communication with fellow teammates and overall collaboration.
For this massive competition to occur and run smoothly, Team Sprocket began to set up on Friday night. The event took place over the weekend, consisting of over a hundred team volunteers, including DBHS students, outside partners and FIRST officials. The outreach Sprocket board assigned roles to their fellow club members and worked with logistics behind the scenes.
From start to finish, members sold concessions, prepared food, guided the crowd and even established a volunteer rest room for anyone in need of a break. On top of its preparation, with the amount of students participating, the event ran from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, then over to 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.
“Volunteers make sure everything runs smoothly and help with roles such as queuing, announcing games and field resets,” senior publicity lead Shelly Shu said. “Then everyone gathers for the opening ceremony, which is a speech by the FIRST officials and the Star Spangled Banner, performed by some of our select Sprocket members.”
Though the competition demanded a few arduous mornings, nights, meetings and plannings, Team Sprocket was able to form connections with one another, demonstrating the importance of an innovative and collaborative community. Each booth, food stand, decoration and activity was arranged with time and effort, allowing the competitive teams to be reviewed effectively and attentively.
“One of my most memorable moments was celebrating one of the FIRST coordinator’s birthday on the second day of FTC, buying a birthday cake and showing a moment of appreciation for her work,” senior Business Captain Sarena Yu said.