At SPFHS, the robotics club as well as the robotics competition team focus on teamwork, problem solving and engineering. The Raider Robotics competition team consists of 15 members who attend every competition, whereas the Raider Robotics club is for anyone who is interested in robotics.
Many members in the club hope to be a part of the competition team in the future by learning more and gaining experience about robotics. Members of the competition team tend to have a little more experience with robotics.
Each year the team has the opportunity to compete in robotic competitions through FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). There are different challenges put together by the competition every year and each of the 15 team members collaborate on the project.
”We offer the club as a space to come and get that programming experience because you get the support of the coaches and the competition team,” Raider Robotics club advisor Matthew Ducker Duffy said. “You get all of the same resources and it’s like you are still building for that game.”
The idea is that the club is almost like a scrimmage team where members are able to bounce ideas off of each other with the primary goal of gaining experience. The hope of the robotics program in general is to help it gain more traction and for it to spread among other students.
”It’s really just one of the more exciting clubs because the members are so committed,” Duffy said. “I’m just proud of how much our team comes together to do outreach events where we’re trying to promote STEM and robotics.”
The club holds a meet at the high school every year in Dec. consisting of around 20 teams. Members of the club as well as members of the competition team will continue to collaborate with one another in the future.
”I see our team and our club as trying to be STEM ambassadors, people that are going to promote STEM to the lower grade,” Duffy said. “We’re making efforts to get out there in the community.”
Anyone who wants to learn more about robotics or is just interested in the field in general is welcome to stop by a club meeting and see what it entails.
