For my final blog of the school year, I thought it would be fitting to talk about one of my favorite high school memories: the FIRST Robotics World Championship that takes place in Houston, Texas every year.  I just came back from my final championship competition, and I want to share what an amazing experience I have every year. While a robotics competition may sound incredibly nerdy to some, the organization, FIRST, prides themselves on being ‘More Than Robots’. FIRST focuses on inclusion, innovation, teamwork, problem solving, and Gracious Professionalism (a FIRST term that is a way of doing things that encourages high quality work and emphasizes the value of respecting others and the community). I have been a part of FIRST since I was 7, joining a robotics team every single year from the elementary level all the way up to the high sc

hool level. More than any other thing that I have been a part of in my life, FIRST has taught me more technical and professional skills and provided me with a community that I will look back at and utilize for the rest of my life. 

 

Now that you have a little background on FIRST (and my clear passion for it), let me talk about Houston. The convention takes place at the George R Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston every year. It has a nice green area outside of the convention center where all of the food trucks line up, a massive convention center with 3 arenas, one for each level of FIRST, a college and career fair, an innovation fair, around 20 conference rooms with professional development and networking conferences happening throughout the 4 days, and my personal favorite part, 2 (TWO!) Starbucks’ in the a

rea. 

 

Competition 

This year more than previous years, because I am part of the “Pit Crew” I spent most of my time in the actual competition area. Fixing our robot’s damages, preparing it for matches, and then watching our matches throughout the competition is how I spent most of my time. We were ranked 12th out of 75 teams in our division, but still ended up being selected by the bottom seeded alliance. While originally very disappointing, we ended up being incredibly successful; we lost our first elimination match and moved to the lower bracket, where it was then upset after upset. We were the 8th alliance and we beat the 4th, 6th, 2nd, and 1st alliances to advance to the finals. We then won the final matches to win the entire division! This was the most success our team has ever had in our history:  in previous years we hadn’t ever won an elimination match, and this year we won the entire division! The winners of each division play on the “Einstein” field, which is the championship field where the winners of all 8 divisions play each other to name a world champion. As a member of the pit crew, I had the opportunity to be on the field when our robot competed. This was a surreal experience, because unlike the division playoffs, now,  the entire arena was watching our match. This is tens of thousands of people. For my senior year as one of the leaders who created this robot, I would say it’s not a bad way to end my robotics career.

Conferences

Another one of my favorite parts of  this convention are the conferences. They have robotics related conferences, networking events, and professional development conferences. This year, one of the ones I went to was called “From Pit Crew to Job Market”, where I learned how to leverage the things I have learned through robotics and apply them to a job and how I could use it to my advantage in an interview. This year I took the opportunity to connect with the person who ran the conference. He asked to see our robot and watch one of our matches; it became both an informational and networking opportunity for me! 

 

Entertainment 

One of the best parts of this convention are the two hours we spend on the green after the event is over for the day. There are close to 15 food trucks lined up along the green, and all of the teams hangout there with field games and music. This is always fun because it is such a nice way to relax with my friends and meet new people. This year I actually met up with my future college roommate during this time because she lived in the area! 

Overall, Huskie Robotics and this Championship is by far my favorite high school memory, and this year was definitely one for the books.