Courtesy of Anh-Quan Nguyen

Members of Cuttlefish and Fish robotics teams speak to Eric Henshall, U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo’s deputy chief.

The Department of Defense (DoD) spent $445.1 billion on defense contracts in fiscal year 2024 — funding that a group of SHS robotic students argued could be better used for STEM education. 

Last summer, the school’s MSET Cuttlefish and MSET Fish robotics teams attended the National Advocacy Conference (NAC) in Washington, D.C., where they joined over 300 students from U.S. robotics teams in advocating to Congress for this goal. 

The student attendees included: seniors Florence Hu (FTC program lead), Lucius Ko (Cuttlefish management lead), Arista Suvarna, Willis Chung (Cuttlefish hardware lead), juniors Ben Guo, Maxwell Tham, Renisha Mandal, and sophomores Sehuj Nirman, Ainsley Nguyen, Vibhu Siddha (Fish scouting lead) and Vihaan Reddi.

NAC is an annual 3-day conference that takes place in June, where participants learn about the inner workings of the federal government and propose modifications and improvements to various STEM-related legislation. On the final day, the teams went to the Capitol building and shared their proposals with several Californian congresspeople, including two representatives and one senator, and their staffers.

This year’s first proposal was a modification to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the bill that appropriates money for all defense-related activities. The students suggested that 0.25% of all NDAA contracts over $10 million be diverted to STEM education. 

This means that for every $1 million in contracts, $2,500 would go towards STEM education. While contractors would hardly notice the loss, the money is a lot for the robotics teams and adds up over time.

With the proposed modifications to the NDAA, STEM education would have received over $1.1 billion that year at nearly no cost to DoD contractors.

The MSET students argued that this investment in STEM education would also indirectly benefit defense contractors, as the defense industry relies heavily upon the STEM workforce. Supporting this amendment would mean supporting contractors’ pipeline of STEM workers. 

Another request Cuttlefish and Fish made was to continue funding the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Title IV of ESSA provides funding for afterschool programs and facilities, including robotics and other STEM activities. 

“It felt really good knowing that I was making a difference by advocating for people who don’t have the resources a school like Saratoga High has to start a robotics program,” said sophomore Vibhu Siddha, the Fish scouting lead. 

Many other teams across the country also vocalized their support for this act, arguing that underserved communities across the country lack the resources to start robotics programs, let alone invest in them for a prolonged period of time.

Among those present was Hannah Smith, director of operations for U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon. Senior Lucius Ko invited her to visit the MSET robotics teams at their lab or during competitions.

“The team essentially created a connection to the staffer in order to maintain contact and create a good relationship, and we asked to see if it was possible to maintain funding for these acts in the future,” Ko said.

While working to prepare their argument, the MSET teams also learned more about how the federal government operated.

“There is practically no career or field that is not in some large way impacted by the government. Learning to navigate and understand that world is going to be very useful in whatever [students] decide to pursue in the future,” Cuttlefish mentor Anh-Quan Nguyen said.

After the teams finished their work at the Capitol, they enjoyed some sightseeing across the city, visiting other historically significant landmarks like the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial.

In November, the teams plan to attend the California Advocacy Leadership Conference, where they will advocate directly to Californian officials. There, the teams will be able to form closer relationships with more local lawmakers, utilizing the lessons they learned from their work at NAC. 

These experiences and new connections will help the teams in getting local bills passed in order to help other robotics teams and STEM as a whole across the state of California, while also fostering an example for other states.  Especially considering the current push by the Trump administration to defund the Department of Education, students felt that it was imperative now more than ever to let their stance on STEM education be known.

In reflecting on their experience, the students felt it was time well spent. While the proposed changes have not yet passed and may never come to fruition, these bills take time and constant effort to be enacted, and MSET members say they will be returning in future years.

“I would definitely go again next year if I could because the fight is never over,” Ko said. “Even if we just do a talk, there is no guarantee that these changes will be implemented so we have to keep fighting for our cause until the very end.”