The upper school robotics team, FIRST FRC Team 1072: Harker Robotics, participated in the Sacramento Regional at the University of California, Davis, this past weekend. There, 46 teams from as far away as Shanghai participated in the 2023 FIRST ENERGIZE competition.
In the first 10 qualification matches on Saturday morning, Harker Robotics was No. 1 in the team rankings, making a strong impression on the attending teams. By the end of the qualification matches on Sunday, it was ranked 11 and was the first pick for the fourth alliance going into the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, the team’s alliance lost both of its initial rounds and was done competing in the games for this event. The team was disappointed, of course, but had done an excellent job in engineering, networking, team building, scouting and team promotion. After packing up the robot and the engineering pit, there was nothing left to do other than watch the remaining games and patiently sit through the awards ceremonies.
The last award given out at every event is the FIRST Impact Award. It is considered the most prestigious award that a team can receive – higher than even being on the winning alliance at the event. According to FIRST, this award “honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST.”
Judges at the Sacramento regional said that 1072 “hosted multiple events, providing opportunities for young students to learn about science, technology engineering and math. Students were exposed to the world of robotics and the ability to pursue careers in STEM education. The impact of this team was felt worldwide.”
The response of the team members was explosive with screaming, jumping, running and many tears. Receiving this award makes 1072 eligible to attend the championship event in Houston in April, where it will compete once again against other Impact Award winners from the other regional events.
Over the weekend of March 6, Harker sixth graders Chelsea Liu and Andy Zhang (pictured right and left above, respectively, holding their teams’ trophies) delivered great results at the Northern California VEXIQ Middle School Regional Championship robotics tournament. Liu’s team, Tetrahedron, took second place overall, qualifying it for the world championship to be held later this year in Dallas. Zhang’s team, known as Season Stealers, was in an alliance with Tetrahedron and took second place in the teamwork challenge, which also earned the team a trip to the world championship.
Fifth graders Sophie Cai, Natalie Deng, Ariana Siamwalla and Alina Zhu had a successful run at Saturday’s VEX IQ Robotics tournament in Morgan Hill, where the team (known as Actuatorly Awesome) took first place in both Teamwork and Skills and also won the event’s Design Award. Their performance qualified them for the Northern California Regional Championship, set to take place March 4. The team thanked the members of another Harker VEX IQ Robotics team (Techtoro, made up of fifth graders Jolie Chao, Sophie Croswhite and Laura Zhang), who also qualified for regionals and offered their insights with other teams.
Last month, sixth graders Ethan Hao, Randy Hui and Terry Zhu, and fifth graders Isabella Du, Richard Li and Aixuan Sun, took first place at a First Lego League Northern California Qualifier event held at Piedmont Middle School. Known collectively as Tierra Bots, the team scored 360 points, and presented an innovation project for a robot that specializes in cleaning solar panels. The team plans to enter the regional competition in February.
Harker upper and middle school VEX robotics teams were named world champions at the VEX Robotics World Championship held May 16-22. The VEX Robotics World Championship is the largest robotics competition in the world with over 8,600 students and 798 teams from more than 30 countries competing. The 798 teams were selected from more than 12,000 teams based on their performance in various events throughout the season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was held remotely. The VEX World Live Remote Tournament (LRT) Championship pitted a pair of teams against each other to score as many points as possible. The VEX World Live Remote Skills (LRS) Championship challenged a single robot to score as many points as it could.
Sophomores Amrita Pasupathy and Nidhya Shivakumar won the High School VEX World LRT Championship and were crowned world champions. Pasupathy and Shivakumar were undefeated among the 307 participating high school teams throughout the qualifying and elimination rounds until the finals of the tournament, in which they competed against the best high school teams in the world. In the finals, the pair won two out of the three matches to be crowned world champs.
In the Middle School VEX World LRT Championship, the one-person team of Kaitlyn Su, grade 8, was crowned the world champion in the middle school division, comprising 166 teams. She went undefeated against the best middle school teams in the world. She won all her matches in the qualifying and elimination rounds, including a sweep of the finals.
In the High School VEX World LRS Championship (comprising 189 high school teams), ninth graders Jordan Labio, Sriram Bhimaraju and Zachary Blue earned the coveted Judges Award, given to the team that is most deserving of special recognition.
Harker upper and middle school VEX robotics teams had a very successful year, with seven teams qualifying for the world championship in May and four winning awards at the recent California State Championship. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most VEX events were held remotely. Live Remote Skills (LRS) events challenged a single robot to score as many points as it could, whereas Live Remote Tournament (LRT) events pitted a pair of robots against each other to score as many points as possible. Throughout the season, the teams participated in various LRS and LRT events, improved their robots and persevered through the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sophomores Amrita Pasupathy and Nidhya Shivakumar were tournament finalists in the California High School State LRT Championship and are currently ranked 12th in high school World Robot Skills Rankings. At the California High School State LRS Championship, ninth graders Jordan Labio, Sriram Bhimaraju and Zachary Blue were the Robot Skills Champions and earned the Excellence Award given to the top all-around team, based on robot performance and judging. Ninth graders Ella Yee and Julie Shi qualified for the state championships by being a Robot Skills Runner Up at an earlier LRS event.
In the California Middle School State LRS Championship, the one-person team of eighth grader Kaitlyn Su was named the Robot Skills Champion and earned the Amaze Award for having the top performing robot. She is also ranked first in middle school World Robot Skills Rankings. In the same event, seventh graders Janam Chahal, Kimi Yashar, MacEnzie Blue and Minal Jalil, earned the Design Award given to the team with the most effective robot design process. Sixth graders Rohan Goyal, Krishna Muddu, Risa Chokhawala, Orion Ghai and Ayden Grover qualified for the state championships. They earned a spot in the World Championship by claiming Robot Skills Runner-Up at an earlier LRS event. Spark Robotics — made up of eighth graders Vedant Balachandran, Rushil Jaiswal, Rishi Lalwani and Shivraj Panja, who also presented at the 2021 Harker Research Symposium — also qualified for worlds.
The middle school girls robotics team, 1072A – made up of seventh graders MacEnzie Blue, Janam Chahal, Minal Jalil and Kimi Yashar – has qualified for the for VEX Robotics World Championship in May. “They have been practicing and competing under my supervision at the STG campus all year as COVID restrictions have permitted,” said Martin Baynes, middle school computer science teacher. “The girls have worked hard and produced a very successful robot.” The team’s place at the world championship was cemented by receiving the Design Award at the Northern California Middle School State Championships. As with all VEX Robotics events this season, the world championships will be held remotely.
Over the last several months, fifth graders Rohan Goyal, Ayden Grover, Neel Kumar and Krishna Muddu, who compete in the VEX IQ robotics competition as Team 14791R, had many successes despite the season being cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. The students learned a great deal about programming, robot construction, robot operation and a host of other skills over the course of the shortened season, during which they won two robot design awards and qualified for both state and national level competitions. Other notable accomplishments included building two robots from the ground up and keeping a detailed engineering journal.
Despite a season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, four middle school robotics teams had a highly successful year in the VEX Robotics Competition. All four qualified for the California State Championships, which were scheduled for earlier this month before being canceled.
Eighth graders Zachary Blue, Sriram Bhimaraju and Jordan Labio were two-time tournament winners and twice won robot skills challenges, in which the team ranked in the top 20 worldwide. The team also received a Think Award for the quality of its robot’s programming.
In their first year of competition, Angela Liu and Kaitlyn Su, both grade 7, won a pair of tournaments as well as a robot skills challenge and were finalists and semifinalists multiple times. Additionally, the team placed first in a VEX Silicon Valley Middle School League event.
Eighth graders Ramit Goyal, Joe Li and Nathan Liu were winners at one high school tournament and twice reached the semifinals in other events. Their robot’s user interface earned them an Innovate Award.
Ella Yee and Julie Shi, both grade 8, also competed for the first time this year, winning one tournament and reaching the quarterfinals in two other events.
Over Presidents Day weekend, Harker eighth graders Ashwin Kuppahally, Adrian Liu, Vivek Nayyar, Kabir Ramzan and Om Tandon became the first Bay Area middle school team to qualify for the VEX IQ Robotics World Championships. The students, known collectively as the Dream Team, won the Excellence Award at the Silicon Valley Signature Robotics Tournament, held Feb. 14-16 in Santa Clara. This award is presented to a team that displays overall excellence in creating a high quality VEX robotics program and performs well in multiple categories, including robot driving skills, autonomous robot programming, teamwork challenges, robot design engineering process and a separate robotics-oriented STEM research project. Winning the Excellence Award guaranteed the Dream Team a spot at the world championships without having to qualify at the state level. The Silicon Valley Signature tournament included top Bay Area teams as well as teams from southern California, Arizona and Washington state, most of which had already qualified for their respective state championships.
The VEX IQ Robotics World Championships, which will take place in Louisville, Ky., from April 26-28, attracts more than 600 teams from around the world, including the top teams from each state. The Dream Team has had a string of successes, winning the Excellence Award, Robot Design Award, STEM Award, Robot Performance Award and Teamwork Champion Award at previous tournaments during the regular season.