In 2022, Dylan Dharwadkar and Sohan Shah had the idea to form the Robotics Club. It wasn’t a smooth start for the club.
“We kept getting denied to create the Robotics Club and we werent allowed to compete, but last year we were finally approved and given a budget,” said President Dylan Dharwadkar.
Dylan formed this group to share his love of Robotics to the students of LACES as well as giving them of opportunity to engage in STEM.
“We decided to make this club because I just love Robotics and talking to my friends about it. They also love engineering and coding too,” said Dharwadkar.“I wanted to give the whole school an opportunity to explore Robotics and to engage in STEM.”
“Being in the Robotics club also looks good on the college application ” Robotics Club Vice President Sohan Shah added.
The Robotics Club competes in a competition games every year called First Tech Challenge (FTC).
“This years game is called ‘Center Stage’. The objective is to pick up small objects, transport it across the feild and then place it on a canvas.” said Dharwadkar.
For the competitions, the Club is divided into 3 different teams. They are two 2nd year teams, ROBTOT and MIGHTY-BUGS, and one 1st year team BOTBOT.
The first 2nd year team, ‘ROBTOT’ is lead by the junior captain, Andrew Kang.
“We are friends, but we are also pretty competitive and it does it get stressful at times,” said Kang.
The other 2nd year team ‘MIGHTY-BUGS’ is lead by the captain, Sideny Trasler.
“As we are building the robots, they are other people who do code and outreach,” she said.
The 1st year team ‘BOTBOT’ is lead by Michah Shwartz. “His idea is that he wanted to take all the youngest people in our club and wanted to build them up from nothing,” said Dharwadkar.
“He took a bunch of middle schoolers and taught them very well. His team ended up making it to regionals and I think its super impressive that he did that.”
Even though the club is freshly made, they have won several competitions and tournaments.
“We have 3 main season games and our play-off season, after our first play-off game we had the opportunity to go to regionals,” said Dharwadkar. “Last year, one of our teams ‘ROBTOT’ barely didn’t make the cut to regionals. However this year, teams ‘ROBTOT’ and ‘BOTBOT’ ended up making it to regionals. Which is a big deal because we were the only teams that were 2nd year teams. So to be new teams best in state is a big deal.”
Anyone can join Robotics. Everyone has a purpose and a role to play when joining the group.
“When you join the club, it doesn’t matter how much experience you have, you will be a part of the club and one of the our three teams no matter what. Once your assigned on one of the teams, your captain will give you a role,” said Dharwadkar.
The Robotics club is currently getting ready for their next season next year. They plan on showing off their skills more next season. “We are going to do a showcase at Fairfax High School that will be open to the public,” said Kang.
The Robotics teams have recently have gotten their new shipment of materials that they order in september. For the future of Robotics, it’s a matter of trying to recruit as many members as they can.
“A lot of our senior members are juniors and we will be graduating in one year. So we will try and recruit many people as possible to ensure the longevity of the club,” said Dharwadkar.
“You’re going to learn new stuff like code, build, design, outreaching to companies and many different things you can do,” said Dharwadkar. “Robotics isn’t just building or coding like many people think. It come with many diverse activities. Any people in our club don’t even code or build. I think everyone has a place in Robotics if they join.”
