Zero Robotics: the junction between coding and astronomy

It is a memory that members of the Zero Robotics club will cherish. Last December, they gathered together in front of a computer and cheered as they watch a livestream of their code running on a satellite aboard the International Space Station.

The club was officially approved by the school this year after the club’s current president, senior Rishi Veerapaneni, created the Zero Robotics team in 2013. The team of 13, named the Tachyons, meet every Sunday in the Robotics Room and occasionally on Fridays during lunch in AP Computer Science teacher Judi Heher’s room.

According to Veerapaneni, the club aims to apply students’ knowledge in math, coding and physics by solving problems involving movement in space.

“When I joined the Zero Robotics team last semester, I was really looking for a challenging way to continue coding beyond the AP CS classroom,” junior Alice Bian said. “What I really appreciate is how we get to work closely in small groups to code certain strategies because then it becomes less of a high-pressure environment.”

From September to December, the Tachyons participated and became co-champions in the Zero Robotics High School Tournament, a competition held entirely online. Out of 128 high school teams from the U.S., Europe and Russia, the Tachyons tied for first along with five other teams, including Monta Vista, a team from West Virginia and three others from Italy.

Students were asked to program soccer-ball sized satellites, SPHERES, to perform numerous tasks in space, such as collecting score packs, which are small yellow boxes, and taking pictures of enemy satellites. Each task awards the team a certain number of points, and the team with the most points wins the round. Although the challenge remained the same throughout the entire season, each round became more difficult with new modifications, such as fuel restrictions for the satellites.

According to the official Zero Robotics website, teams can see their code live from aboard the International Space Station in the competition’s final rounds.

After moving past the initial individual round, with only 84 teams out of 128 advancing, the Tachyons teamed up with two other Italian teams in the alliance round. However, with the language barrier that the teams faced, they had to overcome a new obstacle on top of competition.

“Luckily for us, both the Italian teams had Skype and one of

the teams knew English,” Veerapaneni said. “We had them translate when talking with the third team, so we were able to work well with them.”

The alliance moved past another elimination round, where only 14 of the 28 alliances advanced. In the final round, where the code was sent to the International Space Station, the Tachyons tied for first with another alliance, comprised of the Monta Vista High team, a team from West Virginia and a team from Italy.

For junior Shannon Chen, who “joined on a whim” her sophomore year, Zero has helped her build confidence in communicating her own ideas.

“I had to spend large amounts of time studying resources to muster up the confidence to suggest my own ideas,” Chen said. “It was very gratifying for me to know that I, along with everyone else, contributed different solutions that expanded our options.”

It is not uncommon for newcomers to have to spend a large amount of time researching online at home, on top of coding lessons during meetings.

“The [official] Zero Robotics website has good tutorials, so we use that with mini-lectures during meetings to teach members and get them comfortable with coding [for the competition],” Veerapaneni said.

Among the many clubs at SHS, Zero has created its own niche and has brought something unique onto campus, as well as built up a solid reputation within the Zero community.

“It is an interesting premise,” junior Candace Chiang said. “It combines two different aspects of STEM that people normally don't think about together: space and coding.”

Club Members: Albert Tseng, Lesley Huang, Trishla Pokharna, Yehchan Yoo, Navid Mohklesi, Simrun Buttar, Suneel Belkhale, Bassil Shama, Rishi Veerapaneni, Shannon Chen, Alice Bian, Candace Chiang, Tristan Xiao