Robotics invades King City Secondary School

January 13, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Ada Yihan Wang
Team 6046 is not here to create technology heroes; it is here to work together to develop interests, seek inspiration and recognition of Science and Technology.
As Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) said: “To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders.”
This statement provides a lucid definition of our mission. Robotics, which refers to technologies related to design, construction, operation, and application of robots is not far away from us, it is here. Industrial robots, medical operating robots, even patent assist robots and dog therapy robots come from robotics which are found in our everyday life. There may just be a round robot sweep spying on you under the couch!
The word robotics was first introduced to the public by a Czech writer Karel Apek in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots in 1910. It was fictional in the very beginning, but now it is not a fantasy for us anymore.
Here comes King Tech Team 6046!
This rookie robotics team plans to build a robot to compete in First Robotics Competitions (FRC) while promoting people; especially girls in science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM).
King Tech Team 6024 has seven experienced and dedicated teachers making great efforts to establish this team. On sign up day, we only expected 20 or 30 students to show up. It turned out 76 students signed up for the team! To get stronger alliances, Team 6024 hopes to cooperate with numerous colleges and universities in the area. Also, King City has an active parent council and a strong alumni group. Moreover, Team 1241 and 771 have graciously agreed to mentor team 6046.
Structuring a robotics team is much more complicated than staring a typical sports team. The team is separated in several departments including fundraising, electronics and engineering, marketing and web page design. The marketing team created a marketing plan, designed a team logo and developed a fund raising package to secure community sponsorships. Our electrical and engineering department are in the process of learning hands on work in robotics. We practiced with interest drilling steel, soldering and cutting metal under the guidance of our teachers.
But team 6024 also faces a couple obstacles. Like climbers need to plan their path and climb over rugged ridges, our team is going to overcome many challenges. Our objective is to have 75% girls on the team. We only have about 30 female members, which does not satisfy our objective in the first place. Obviously, we still need more girls. In addition, we want to build major sponsorships and partnerships to ensure our team sustainability, provide financial support and vital human resources.
Team 6046 kicked off the season Jan. 9.
Armed with a great group of dedicated and confident team members and teachers team 6046 is preparing for a successful rookie season competing in the FIRST robotics competition. Look for more exciting news from team 6046!