Waukee Students Excel in First Tech Challenge Robotics Competition
Waukee’s FTC (First Tech Challenge) Robotics team is spending their year knocking rubber ducks off a carousel. It’s one of the most impressive things you’ll see.
“The team will design, program and build a robot to complete those tasks,” says Palin Narsian.
Teams receive points for completing these tasks during their competitions. Waukee’s four robotics teams are squaring off against other students from across Iowa on a regular basis.
Before the competition begins, Waukee students spend their time working on all facets of their robots.
“There’s a section of the game where nobody has a controller in their hand, so it has to be preprogrammed,” adds Nikitha Udipi. “You can also learn how to build and how to design. Those soft skills, like how to talk professionally to companies and outreaching. Those are all skills you can learn from this one club.”
From FTC skills to life skills, these students are getting a crash course on the importance of being prepared.
“There are things that go wrong in competition and you need to quickly figure out a solution to that,” says Narsian. “Figuring that out and building on it for future competitions is a very important skill.”
After the design work and practice sessions are complete, the 40 students on Waukee’s FTC Robotics team are ready to compete.
“You can just see how other teams have tackled the issues, that we need to solve with our bot,” says Udipi. “Competitions are always fun, so it’s great.”
“A lot of the time we might not have the best robot,” says Narsian. “But if we improve something that went wrong and fix it for the next time, then we’ve basically done our job.”
Waukee’s FTC team has been in existence for 10 years and is really starting to find their robotics routine. They are also setting an example for future students.
“I never thought I would be crafting a sponsorship letter. Now that I am, I can do it for a lot of things,” says Narsian. “I helped fundraise for another club and the skills I used for that, I learned from this club.”
“If you have any interest in building and being creative, just go for it,” says Udipi. “It’s a great opportunity to understand how this works.”
Waukee Robotics Team Receives Bayer Grant
Students at Waukee Community School District received grant funding for their robotics team as they work to enhance their skills in science and engineering. Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer, recently awarded a one-time $1000 grant to Team 10198 – GLOW to support their participation in the FIRST Robotics program. Click here to read the press release from Bayer.
