This year, Westview’s robotics team, Option 16, ranked 14th out of the 51 teams who participated in the San Diego Regionals: First Robotics Competition [FRC] held at UCSD Line Tree Arena; their highest ranking to date. Because of their high ranking, they were able to obtain the second highest alliance with two other San Diego teams. As a result, Option 16 will go to Championships in Houston on April 17 to compete against teams from all over the world. Option 16’s president Xochitl Martinez (12) said the team members devoted a lot of time to the project over the past two months. This year, FRC’s theme was “show”, and Option 16 decided to go with the specific theme of “crescendo”. Option 16 built a 100-pound robot from scratch in eight weeks, making sure that their robot was capable of taking little hula hoops and shooting them to different speakers.
Martinez said Option 16’s strategy and teamwork were key to their success.
“The most important thing is communication because you can’t have a cohesive robot if you’re not talking to other people in the other disciplines,” Martinez said.
Even with their result, it was not just Option 16’s placement that pleasantly shocked the members.
“One of the awards that we put a lot of effort into this year was the Impact Award, which is the most prestigious award that you can get in this competition as a team [as only one out of the 51 participating teams are awarded with it], and we got it,” Martinez said.
In essence, the Impact Award is given not to the robot, but to a team who is outstanding in the executive summaries [a summary about the team], the written application, the essay, and a video, which the business discipline branch of robotics worked hard to achieve.
Helena Shi (11), the animation leader since her sophomore year, was able to win the Impact Award with the help of the four other members of the business department.
“It’s been really hard to accomplish these projects on our own,” Shi said. “[But] I feel like everyone has put a lot of effort into this team, and we’ve built upon our achievements throughout our robotics journey and just seeing that we’ve achieved this award really means a lot.”
Julia Smith (11) a member of the electrical and system discipline of robotics, joined robotics as a freshman, and her hard work had paid off this year with her receiving the Dean’s List award, which is given to those who represent the First program and whose passions are reflected throughout the program.
With all of the techniques she learned since her freshman year, she recognized technical advancements that she believes really helped the robot succeed.
“Our technical organization, the mechanical, electrical, and software organization, had a lot of advancements [swerve module],” she said, “It allowed us to be a lot more successful.”
After the competition, Martinez gained confidence in Option 16’s abilities, and is excited for the future of this team.
“The fact that we made it to quarterfinals was really good,” Smith said. “[We] made Option 16 history.”
