“3, 2, 1, GOOO!” shouted senior Saachi Jain into the microphone at the Saratoga FTC Qualifier on Jan. 12. Four robots sprang to life, immediately depositing red and blue rectangular “sample” blocks onto the “submersible” structure in the center of the field.
Ten months of planning and coordination by the MSET robotics team came together for moments like this during their annual event on Sunday, Jan. 12, when 25 local First Tech Challenge (FTC) teams competed in the gym for a chance at advancing to the Regional Championship on Feb. 23.
In the end, Kuriosity Robotics (team 12635) won the coveted Inspire Award while teams Mecha Mantises (team 19862) and Cheesy Bytes (team 23224) of Bellarmine emerged as the victors of the competition. At Regionals, these teams will aim to qualify for the World Championships in Houston in mid-April.
The event lasted from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., with teams from neighboring cities like Fremont, Palo Alto and Menlo Park duking it out for a chance to compete at the regional level.
At these competitions, teams begin the day with robot and field inspection to ensure their robot does not violate the rule book and can connect to the competition field properly. They also present and are interviewed by judges on their various outreach initiatives, hoping to secure a judged award that can also advance them to Regionals.
An event of this magnitude demands heavy logistics as a lot of equipment in several competitions and practice fields are required; TVs show live rankings and broadcast games while several tables and power strips are needed for teams to charge their batteries and run maintenance on their robots. Additionally, running the event on schedule is vital to keeping competitions from going late into the night.
However, hosting this annual tournament has become routine for the MSET organization as they have hosted more than ten of them.
“There are so many logistics that go into hosting this event, especially since it is a double-sized qualifier,” said science teacher and MSET staff advisor Jennifer Lee. “We also need to work with school staff including maintenance and operations, custodial, as well as administrators to coordinate needs and permission. Given how many times MSET has hosted at SHS, we already have a lot of plans and processes in place.”
She regarded the event as a success as many local teams consider MSET’s event as one of the best to attend year after year.
“We are lucky to have quite a few parents who have taken on the role of tournament director throughout the years. The team includes Bob and Dianne France, Sheeba Garg, Keerti Melkote, and Harvinder Mundh. MSET really appreciates the support we get from SHS administrators, especially Mr. Torrens and Mr. Louie, in allowing us to host such a large event year after year,” Lee remarked.
