Iron Panthers' hard work pays off at MBR

BY BRINDA IYER Sta Reporter

On Wednesday, March 29, e Iron Panthers participated in the Monterey Bay Regional (MBR) robotics competition, reaching the semi nals.

is is probably the best our robot has ever performed,” senior and co-captain Kristen Tran said. “We’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the season.” e objective of the challenge mirrored that of the Central Valley Regional (CVR) competition, which the team attended in March. e robots had to drive up to a cube, pick it up and take it back to their starting positions. e goal was to fetch as many cubes as possible. e robots then did an activity to see which one could balance on a ramp for the longest. e team learned from its mistakes at CVR, ending the season with a far better performance.

“With other [competitions], everyone [was confused], and it was more complicated,” sophomore Cindy Chen said. “But with [MBR], everyone knew what to do, and we weren’t that stressed out.”

A er three consecutive losses against rst place and previous world champion Madtown Robotics, the Panthers began at the bottom of the rankings. But, over the next two days, the team’s perseverance pushed them to the top.

“Belief in our abilities and having a positive attitude [really helped us],” team coach Christina Wade said.

Before MBR, the Panthers made the last-minute decision to take part in the Sacramento Regional Competition, which helped them x technical issues with the robot and work on communication — two challenges they encountered at CVR.

“[Sacramento] helped us work out some of the kinks, so we were con dent [entering] Monterey,” Wade said.

Going into MBR, the Panthers focused on qualifying for the world competition. Despite losing to Spartan Robotics of Mountain View High School and failing to qualify, the team agreed that they presented their best possible work.

“We were not able to beat some of those powerhouse teams that are a level above us,” sophomore and engineering lead Zack Weinberg said. “But, besides that, I think we got what we wanted. We did really well, [our robot was] reliable, and we’re pretty proud of that.”

Many underclassmen took on bigger responsibilities, especially on the engineering side. Unlike previous years, freshmen constructed the majority of the robot.

“[MBR] is one of the rst competitions where I did not have a reason to touch the robot,” junior and student lead Connor Lu said. “I was con dent that the robot was going to be taken care of. Being stressfree as a lead on this team is a really great feeling.” e Panthers are con dent that they will excel in next year’s compe- titions, despite losing seniors.

“[We] learned a lot about how to use tools and about di erent concepts,” freshman Adrian Su said of his rst season. “I think we’re going to be able to pick up the slack that the seniors are leaving.” e team will also receive anancial boost from sophomore Julien Mott, who won a $5,000 STEM grant as a runner-up in a collegiate robotics competition hosted by Connecticut-based robot combat league National Havoc (NHRL).

Mott discovered his passion for robotics in 2018. Two years later, with the help of senior Jasmine Cheng, Mott began working on his NHRL robot. As the youngest team, Mott entered the competition with low expectations.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see that putting time and e ort into the project really [was] rewarded with success,” Mott said. “It was very nice to see that despite all that I’ve learned in this time, dedication, ambition and hard work [is] what makes the di erence.”

Mott’s in uence went beyond Burlingame. While scrolling through Instagram a er the competition, he saw that a robotics team in Mexico made a cake with his robot as the centerpiece. Knowing that he impacted people on a global level was “heartwarming,” Mott said.

“I hope that I can use my inspiration to inspire others,” Mott said. “I really love robotics, and I want other people to enjoy it as much as me.”