Courtesy of RECF foundation

Lee (left) driving during their world quarterfinals match in Dallas.

For nearly seven years, senior Richard Lee has been part of VEX robotics, which he began doing in sixth grade. It has taken him to places such as Iowa, Dallas and Los Angeles for competitions.

Robotics first caught Lee’s attention as he looked to explore different clubs. He applied and was accepted into Redwood Middle School’s VEX robotics program and began working on software.

“Even though I started coding the software, it quickly became boring to me after the excitement of something new wore off,” Lee said. 

By the end of sixth grade, he switched to work on robot hardware. Hardware was a much better fit since he had very good hand-eye coordination. Lee noted that the hands-on experience with building the robot helped him understand the mechanics of the machine much better than when he coded from the sidelines. By the time he was in eighth grade, he had been promoted to hardware lead and project manager of his team.

Along the way, he had many notable achievements such as when his team, Redwood Robotics, qualified for the world championship held in Dallas in eighth grade. Although his team didn’t earn any major awards there, Lee recalls it being a major learning experience.

“The world championship was really an eye-opener — it really let me graph the scope of robotics and displayed a huge amount of improvement for me,” Lee said.

Once in high school, Lee became the project manager on his new team, 95071V. As a freshman, he focused on maintaining a high-quality robot and learning how to drive the robot. This included wire management and other types of fine tuning. Lee also undertook the job of managing the team’s finances that year, which gave him insights into yet another aspect of the competition.

Through his team’s time and effort, 95071V was able to make it to the world championship in May that year, but it wasn’t able to perform well in the elimination matches. 

In his sophomore year, Lee decided to switch to team 95071X as his team had disbanded after the disappointing world championship performance. 

“The team composition in our freshman year had major faults as everyone had different levels of experience,” Lee said.

This meant that although he was very experienced in robotics, he was working with newcomers who were just learning robotics. This dynamic caused friction among team members. He decided that he wanted to be with people who were more honed in on his skills.

After switching teams, Lee’s new team, 95071X, was able to win the state championship’s Excellence Award, the highest award a team could earn. At the world championship in 2024, held in Dallas, the team made it to the quarterfinals in its division. 

In the moment, the loss in quarterfinals was heartbreaking as they felt they had a good chance of winning their division. 

Looking back, Lee viewed his sophomore year as a warm-up for his future years. Going from freshman to sophomore year, the roster changes meant he was unfamiliar with his new team. He learned a lot about how teams function as a whole, and he honed in on his hardware and driving skills. 

Lee also noted that some of his other extracurricular activities helped him with his robotics skills. For example, Lee said practicing cello taught him about the best ways to practice skills. Instead of spending one or two days and practicing 5-6 hours each day, he would spend a week practicing around two hours a day. This is similar to driving a robot, as not driving huge amounts in one day and more every day was better.

In his junior year, team 95071X made minimal roster changes and they achieved a breakthrough. At the start of the season, the team managed to make four finals appearances in a row at regional-level events, winning three of them. When they finally started to win competitions, he believed that every late night spent practicing driving and every all nighter spent building all felt worth it.

He attributed the success mostly to having a similar roster with improved chemistry, which allowed them to be more efficient with hardware and software.

For Lee, this season helped him deeply grow as a participant, and he learned to handle the pressure of high-stakes matches. It also helped bond with his team more and develop a more focused work ethic. 

“That year I spent nearly 2,000 hours on robotics, it really helped me by growing me into a calmer and more mature person,” Lee said.  

This year, Lee is the president of the school’s VEX robotics club. Instead of focusing on every little result and performance of his team, he wanted to spend more of his time helping freshmen and sophomores, the future members of the club.

Although his team fell short of the world championships this year, they made the semifinals at Nationals in Iowa earlier this month as well as winning a few local competitions. He viewed the season as a great way to close out his career. 

Looking back, Lee described his robotics experience as exhilarating and one that taught him a bevy of useful skills.

“I really enjoyed robotics as it helped me grow as a person and it also helped me make a lot of friends. Robotics taught me a lot about patience and how to communicate effectively with people even if you disagree with them,” Lee said.