ROBOTICS

The Mercy Mechs, FTC Team 18233, was named second runner up for the Innovate Award at the FIRST Tech Challenge robotics competition. Student robotics teams competed by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format.

This year our own Mercy robotics team, the Mercy Mechs, participated in the FIRST FTC program with some fun results and the promise of future growth. Despite the many bumps that any rookie/rebuilding team has, the girls were able to qualify for semi-finals at the league tournament. All season, the robot required redesign after redesign, as we attended meets where we were progressively more and more capable: our arm was defunct until the third meet and sometimes pieces were rattling around somewhere inaccessible. Every success was celebrated, from fundraising to skill building to competing in all aspects of the game, which was called Powerplay this year. Girls with different talents stepped up at different times to do what they could, with captain Mika Oamil ‘23 to take us to the next level. We are grateful for the guidance and support given by our mentor Aiden Wolfe, an engineer at Boeing Aerospace, who often ran 6-hour sessions for the girls on Saturdays, teaching them design thinking, machining, construction, soldering, and game strategy, along with random facts about space.

Robotics Team

Moderator & Science Teacher

Ellen Lin

Robotics Team

Mikayla Oamil '23

Gurleen Samra '23

Marrien Gomez '23

Persia Ehteshami '24

Maya Reynoso '24

Gianna Lertora '24

Karina Monsanto '24

Audra Rodgers '24

Madeline Tzifas '24

Noalani Victorio '25

Presley Livsey '25

Cadence Wong '25

Caitlyn Chen '25

The Mercy Mechs 18233 is a rookie robotics team at Mercy with members ranging from all grade levels. Participating in FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) events, we teach young women the beginnings of engineering, computer science, graphic design, and management in hopes of inspiring them to pursue careers in STEM. While it is vital for us to get our work done, we also prioritize team morale and aim to cultivate an environment in which we can rely on each other wholeheartedly. This year we not only had passionate members who persisted in challenging work, but supportive guidance and instruction from our teacher, Ellen Lin, and mentor, Aiden Wolfe. As a group, we were able to achieve being a semifinalist in a League Tournament.

Mikayla Oamil ‘23, Robotics Team Captain