On Monday, January 30, the Parker robotics team took to the Auditorium stage to reflect on their semester of innovation and competition. The presentation featured team members sharing about their process and their work as well as audience members getting the chance to compete with robots.

From September to the end of the first semester, the Robotics team has been meeting Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays to build a robot and compete. This school year they have competed in three competitions. They placed in the top four in all three. In Robotics, there are many setbacks, malfunctions, and triumphs, all of which were outlined by their MX.

Parker’s Robotics program is composed of two teams, #9410 (Frank’s garage), the freshman team, and #3507 (Robotheosis), the team for the rest of the high school. Thus far in their year-round season, Robotics has competed in three league meets and the league championship is coming up. Going into the league Championships, Parker’s Freshman Team (#9410), is first in the league, and the team (#3507) is second. “Both Parker teams are going into league championships with a 10-0 win-loss record,” Robotics captain Warner Vance said.

Last weekend the teams competed in their third competition in which the Freshman team outscored Robotheosis. The league championships will be held at Parker, then state at Elgin Community college, and worlds, held in Detroit.

The team has performed admirably throughout the season but these triumphs are not without some struggle. “We have had to go through countless revisions of the robot and constant trial-and-error testing,” Sophomore Eli Terman said.

In addition to competing and winning Robotics competitions, the robotic team conducts outreach to other schools to get them interested in STEM. “Getting people involved in STEM at a young age can help them succeed more in the future in that area,” head of outreach for both teams Alex Chaouki said. 

Throughout all of this progress, learning, and success, the Robotics team still looks to improve, moving into competitions that hold even greater stress and even higher stakes. “Through the many challenges we have faced this year the Robotics team has grown closer together, we look forward to having an even more successful rest of the season,” sophomore Lincoln Hamid said.