M-SET open house sets stage for promising season

Hoping to draw new student and parent volunteers, the Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (M-SET) held an open house on Aug. 26.

M-SET vice president Todd Nguyen expected “about five-10 people to show up, but there were at least 60 people there.” 

The event was held in the robotics corner of the music quad. M-SET officers set up stations for people interested in rocketry, the FIRST tech challenge and for parent volunteers. The open-house gave students a chance to have their questions answered and sign up for the team before Club Day. 

“The event was a huge success,” M-SET president Stanley Yip said. “The quad was packed with students and their parents who were interested in the program.”

The team was eliminated in the semifinals of the FIRST robotics competition last March. This season, they hope to make it to the finals in St. Louis, Mo.

One of the main goals of the open house was to inform potential new members of what they could be involved in. Although M-SET is well-known for its success in the field of robotics, the program encompasses different types of rocketry, engineering, marketing and web design. 

Yip hopes to expand the program and train new members to carry on the legacy of the 2013 graduating class. 

“The open house seems to have generated a lot of interest,” Yip said. 

Yip added that new members must learn that robotics is “not like learning from a textbook, where there is only one right answer. You really have to imagine the possibilities and weigh the pros and cons of each before you make a final decision.”

Nguyen also believes that M-SET has taught him important skills for the future.

“Collaboration on engineering projects is nothing like school projects; one person can’t carry the rest of the group to success,” he said.  

Yip also feels that M-SET serves as an entryway into the “real world,” especially in terms of hands-on work. This year, he hopes to design and develop more sophisticated subsystems for the robot.

“We’re really just trying to continue our forward momentum after last year’s success,” Nguyen added.