Meet, greet & compete

Competitors sharing information, working together and supporting one another. They may have differing opinions on issues and actions that need to be taken, but they still respect each other enough to sit down and have a meal together. Sound like a Utopia? Certainly can’t be any meeting of the minds in California, right? Well, this one was a meeting of young California minds and the camaraderie was impressive.

Crescenta Valley, Clark Magnet and La Cañada high school robotic teams met on the evening of Feb. 13 at Crescenta Valley High School to compare notes on their recent engineering experiences. Since winter break all three teams have been preparing their robots for competition at FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). CV teacher and team mentor Greg Neat came up with the idea to have the teams meet in a friendly atmosphere.

“It’s great. Clark, La Cañada and CV all together,” Neat said. “We are all still competitive but we are also neighbors.”

With help from CVHS teacher/mentor Win Saw and parent volunteers, the three teams enjoyed a barbecue, competition and then, of course, ice cream. Saw flipped hamburgers and students filled their plates while comparing notes on engineering trials and tribulations.

“It’s been interesting,” said CVHS team member Ani Kourchian. “We have talked a lot about the floor and the wheels.”

Each year FIRST challenges the teams with a new game to play. This year the game is called “Lunacy.” It is a type of basketball/hockey game where humans and robots score points by throwing what are called “orbit balls” into a basket that is being pulled by the robot. The difference this year is the flooring is slick and the robot wheels that FIRST has designated are specific for that floor and unfamiliar to the students.

It was obvious that the teams all approached their engineering strategies differently, but they all found common ground.

CV student Samuel Sampson joked that after the night’s hamburger feast, he and fellow engineer Kourchian had decided to go vegan.

“We are doing it to purify our systems for competition,” he said.

Team members laughed, joked and debated everything from how to purify their competitive system to the best way to program a robot.

After dinner the teams took their robots onto the field, which for the evening was the CVHS cafeteria, and began a friendly competition.