The New Mission Bay Robotics Team

Photo Credit: The Beachcomber

Mission Bay's Robotics Team

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February 13, 2012 • Shalaya Johnson, Staff Reporter  
Filed under Features, Top Stories

Mission Bay High’s first and only robotics team has joined together this year. It is run by engineering teacher, Alex Canon, and they have been working on a robot for 3 weeks now and they hope it will win tournaments against other schools. Since this is the team’s first year, what to expect is unknown, but so far they have learned a lot about designing, programming, and operating robots. During these long processes they also learned a thing or two about teamwork, dedication, and leadership. They aspire to beat other teams even though they have not had the time and experience as other schools.

The team is racing against the clock as they try to finish their very first robot. The mechanical man is supposed to be able to play basketball against other robots in the tournament. They’ve been brainstorming like hurricanes for the question, “How do we build a robot to do such a thing?” They have literally been building the robot from the ground up. It is planned to be about 5 feet tall, about the size of an 8th grader, and have arms and all. “It really feels like we are building a little person, we have to teach [program] it to walk, and shoot basketballs. I feel like it will start talking soon,” says one of the team members. A robot isn’t the only thing being built, friendships seem to be too. “It’s like we’re more than a team, almost family. Just thinking, planning, designing, problem-solving, and building all together, really has brought us closer as friends. When we all met up we were complete strangers, now I feel like I’ve known them my entire high school life.” The team is made of about of about 9 students, 9th-12th grade, and of all different ethnicities.

The robotics team has had a great time so far on the robot and expects even better times in the future. They are very anxious for the completion of their robot named “Jordan”, named after famous basketball player Michael Jordan, and can’t wait to put it to the test in the tournaments soon to come.

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