By Harlie Bates-Hudgin
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The For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) program in the Robotics Club advised by Tyson Kikugawa has adopted a new FIRST category, the First Tech Challenge (FTC).
“I’m really glad that we get to expand FIRST in Mililani. Overall, pretty excited. Kinda scared, but excited more than anything,” said President of FIRST Robotics Senior Adrianna Saymo.
Although the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) has been the main priority for the members of the Robotics Club in past years, the addition of FTC has stirred enthusiasm among new and returning club members. “This is also my first year as a real leader, so I’m excited and really scared, but more excited because there’s more things you get to do,” said Saymo.
The differences in the two competitions vary in difficulty. “One is like JV and one is like varsity. FRC is like the varsity, so there’s more money poured into that. It’s more challenging,” said Kikugawa.
As a part of the FTC program, students are eligible for more than $10 million in scholarships. “That’s one of our talking points when we’re trying to recruit,” said Kikugawa, “At one point I know, from what I’ve heard, is that one out of every five applicants (received) a scholarship.”
The FIRST competitions include restrictions on software and hardware in their guidelines. “The software, we’re kind of limited,” said Kikugawa, “The competition actually says, ‘You can’t use these types of software.’” Hardware faces a similar dilemma. “Hardware, like I said, some of the hardware is regulated, like the motors. You can’t use certain motors,” said Kikugawa, “Or you can only use their computer, and their router for wireless communication.” Structure is a different issue; without any restrictions, the build of the robot is up to the students.
Not only is it difficult to build a robot, but the FTC competition allows a team only three months until the finished product is due. MHS’ team has already begun to discuss the process of design for the FTC competition. The FRC competition doesn’t begin until January, and only allots six weeks for completion.
Both the FTC and FRC programs require its club members to devote hours to the construction of the robot and the competition. “I didn’t know that it would take in so much work that you had to do programming, like I’m in the electrical team. I wire stuff, which is easy, but the program and stuff is very difficult,” said third-year member Junior Keegan Ohta.
Responsibilities for Robotics members don’t stop at designing and building a robot; homework is also an issue. Although it is difficult to complete, it doesn’t make these students falter. “Lucky for us, Mr. Kikugawa, our adviser, he has this tab, this one-hour study hall before we start building,” said Saymo.
Even with all of these regulations and difficulty with time management, the members continue their service to the Robotics Club. “So it’s mind boggling at some points, but it turned out to be fun in the past two years at different points in time,” said Ohta.
The FRC team is currently preparing for their competition that is to be held in December.
