This past weekend the the school’s M-SET robotics team travelled to Madera for the Central Valley Regional tournament to fight for the championship against 45 competitors. The team advanced to the semifinals — finishing in sixth place overall.
This year's challenge was to make a robot that can both control a 2 foot in diameter medicine ball and score the ball in either an elevated goal for 10 points or a low goal for one point. The robot earned extra points by passing the ball to teammates, shooting over a truss in the middle of the field and successfully catching a ball that is thrown over the truss. All the challenges are completed in alliances with other teams.
The M-SET team created its robot, Gus, in the past six weeks. Gus has a base of six wheels. It uses its claw to control to control the 2 foot medicine ball. In the center of the claw is a large plastic circle which connects to a linear bar that is powered by two 40-pound springs.
This year, sophomore Naveed Riaziat and freshman Kyle France drive the 122-pound robot during the matches.
The M-SET team, nicknamed the Fish, were off to a good start at the beginning of the tournament, winning three of their first four qualification matches. Trying to show off their robot’s qualities and win matches, members faced stressful days.
“The last six weeks of your life cummulate to these few matches and its all up to you to make it work,” Riaziat said.
The team was able to choose which teams they would compete with during eliminations. The M-SET Fish chose team 3501, the Firebirds, from Fremont High School, and team 2073, Eagle Force, from Pleasant Grove High School, as their alliance partners.
“The fifth alliance is not the best position, but we were able to upset the fourth-seeded alliance and advance to the semifinals, ” senior vice president Mihir Iyer said.
Although the M-SET Fish were able to upset the higher fourth alliance in the quarterfinals, they were unable to defeat the first-place alliance composed of team 254, The Cheesy Poofs, from Bellarmine College Preparatory, team 973, The Greybots, from Atascadero High School and team 2135, Presentation Invasion, from Presentation High School in the semifinal match.
Even though the team did not win the tournament, they believe it was a success and are looking forward to improving Gus.
“Being an alliance captain is a great accomplishment for the team and it shows how far we have come,” Iyer said.
But this competition was just the start of the team's competition season. The team is travelling to Denver from April 4-7 to partake in the Colorado Regional. If they excel there, they will win a bid to go to the World Championship in St. Louis on April 24-26.
“We expect to perform at the highest possible standard using the knowledge we gained here and hopefully win the tournament,” vice president sophomore Kabir Manghnani said.