A New Kind of High School Club: FIRST Robotics

During the four years I was in high school I participated in a sort of unconventional after school activity: robotics. Most people have seen Battle Bots and assume that this is the same kind of thing, but FIRST Robotics is very different. FIRST gives students six weeks to build a 120 pound robot that competes in a newly released game every year with teams from all over the world. Definitely not your typical high school club.

During this past month I had the chance to revisit a robotics competition as a volunteer and I thought I would share the craziness that is FIRST with all of you. :) Here is a picture of the field:

Competitions typically start Wednesday night. Volunteers are asked to come in to begin setup of the field, but because I am in college and still have class on Thursday, I did not arrive until Thursday night. Thursday night is when the teams show up to begin setting up their pits. Much like racecars have a designated pit stop full of everything they need to be ready for their next race, robots also have pits that have everything they need for the next match. Below is a picture of the pit for my team:

As a volunteer, I was a scorekeeper, which meant that I was tasked with dealing with the software the field runs on and doing that match start procedure. So Thursday night, I was responsible for making sure the field worked by running tests and offering practice matches to teams once everything was good to go. I left at about 10:30 that night and was expected to be ready to go the next morning around 8. Fridays are probably the most insane day of competition. Mornings start at 8, matches start at 10, and the entire day runs until about 8 at night. We play about 60 matches in a day, and every match has its own specific issues. Saturday starts at 8 again and usually only runs until about 6, with cleanup ending around 8. But since the competition I was at was in a small town in northern Michigan, I was there until around 10:30 at night helping with cleanup. Here is a picture of the gym after everything is cleaned up:

Overall, I had fun doing robotics in high school and it was nice to come back in college to volunteer. For anyone living in Michigan, come check out the World Championships that will be hosted in Detroit this year! If anyone has any questions about FIRST, feel free to comment down below. :)