MSET Season Wrap-up

On April 6  the robotics competition season officially came to a close for the Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (M-SET) when the members placed third in the First Robotics Competition (FRC) Silicon Valley Regional.

“We had a really successful run [at SVR.] It was our first time picking [alliances], so that was a huge milestone for us, especially because it is such a competitive regional,” club president senior Stanley Yip said.

The team and their robot, Tobiko, played a game similar to frisbee golf, where point are scored by shooting frisbees into goals of different heights. The higher the goal, the more points it is worth. At the end of the two-minute and fifteen-second match, robots had to climb steel pyramids located at the middle of the field for extra points.

“Overall, I’m really proud of the team. We faced some new challenges we had never faced before,” Yip said. “Since the game was really difficult this year, I’m amazed at what we accomplished.”

These challenges included a difficult game, time pressure and the usual hiccups with certain critical components of the robot, all to be fixed in the six week build-season or during the competitions in between matches.

Over the summer MSET officers also plan to host engineering workshops and basic skills that come in useful during the build-season.

“Now that the season is over, we’re going to be focusing on community outreach and sponsor relationships and hopefully gain some new members,” Yip said.