Junior transitions to new robotics team

At an event for local high school robotics teams last year, junior Daniel Koh stood behind a wall of desks, clutching a remote during a scrimmage against local schools at Intuitive Surgical, a company that manufactures robotics surgical systems. Before he knew it, the robot he had been controlling wrangled free. It crashed through the desks, finding its way into the audience and running over one member’s toe.

Koh, then a sophomore at Monta Vista High, was sure that the incident was due to a mechanical error in the robot and quickly apologized. The person the robot ran into turned out to be junior Nicole Lin, part of Saratoga High’s robotics team.

Little did Koh know that this incident would prove beneficial when he moved to Saratoga last summer, as Saratoga’s robotics team remembered him from that incident.

Since his move from Monta Vista, Koh has observed some distinct differences between the two schools.

“[Saratoga] is less competitive, and there is definitely a lot more diversity and interests here,” Koh said.

Koh has been quick to find a niche in his new setting: the robotics team.

Prior to joining Team 649 at Saratoga, Koh was a member of Team 115, Monta Vista’s robotics team. Koh said that the hardest part about moving here was leaving all his friends, though he looks forward to seeing them at competitions.

As for robotics, he sees more opportunities here because the Monta Vista team has 100 members compared to Saratoga High’s 70.

While at Monta Vista, he earned the role of operator on 115, making him to be the one in charge of controlling the robot during competitions. While he enjoyed the role, he wished he could have branched out more within the program by taking part in producing different components of the robot.

“Robotics is not really about driving the robot; it’s about designing and programming it and things like that,” Koh said. “No one [at Monta Vista] really allowed me to do that. They just put me in charge of the controls.”

In comparison to 115, the smaller size of Saratoga’s team allows Koh to experience a spectrum of different roles. 649 is comprised of the robotics team president, a head of hardware, a head of software, a head of electronics, a head of TARC (rocketry), a head of FTC (a smaller robotics competition), marketing specialists, a financial lead, an administrative team and dozens of members who aid with the building of the robot.   

Koh is now working on the design of the robot; specifically, he is working on the gear boxes and drive chassis, the structure of the robot.

Furthermore, the people on 649 made Koh’s transition between schools easier. Sure enough, Lin, whom he had hit with a robot previously and seniors Naveed Riaziat and Navid Mokhlesi recognized Koh from previous competitions, which helped ease his transition into the team.

According to Koh, his move to 649 has been beneficial because he is finally doing something he is really interested in. By doing what he likes, Koh finds that he is making a more significant contribution to the team.

Koh said that Saratoga’s robotics team is incredibly fun and “really enthusiastic about what [it] is doing.”

He feels that the team will do very well this year in competitions, especially due to the abundance of designers and programmers on the team.

Aside from robotics, in the first few weeks of the school, Koh joined the junior class’s  all-boys’ dance during their Homecoming performance because of the team’s strong suggestion of him to do so.

“I think their motivation [to include me] was to have fun,” Koh said.

Although Koh typically did not participate in events such as Homecoming at Monta Vista, he decided to try it out here.

“It turned out to be the most fun I had in high school,” Koh said. “Other than robotics.”