By Maymunah Ibrahim
The “First Robotics” trademark logo.
Introduction: Each year, Robotics is one of the most popular and ambitious extracurricular activities at our school. They compete against local, statewide, and sometime even national teams to win recognition for engineering and programming skills. Below, staff reporter May Ibrahim interviews Noor Khalifa, a leader within the Robotics team to get a sense of why so many students—male and female—are attracted to this demanding after school club. (The First Robotics annual championship competitions for 2019 were held this April in Detroit and Houston; and as you can see from the t-shirt logo below, they chose a space launch construction theme this year.)
Question: Tell me a little about the Robotics club. Who is a part of the club? What things go on during a regular meeting?
N.K. : “If you don’t want to piss anyone off, say we are a TEAM, not a club. We do competitions and stuff, so yeah. We are a First Robotics Team, and we participate in the First Robotics Competition, which consists of a six week building period. During those six weeks, we build a robot that participates in a game that was released during that season.
Our team participates in two competitions, and if we qualify at those two competitions, we go to World Championships in April. The robot designed is completely student based, with the only limitations being time and budget.”
Question: How do you become a part of the team? What goes on during an “audition”?
N..K. : “There is no audition. You just come. You make sure you have all your consent forms signed, and you’re in. There are no prerequisites.”
Question: What was it like to compete in an actual competition?
N.K. : “It’s stressful because it seems like it’s just one problem after the other with the robot. But in the end, the hard work pays off when people acknowledge and admire your work. It’s also really eye-opening to see how people all over the world tackle the same problem you do, yet so differently. It’s also really cool to meet new people, it’s a very open community.”
Question: Finally, what needs to be prepared and organized in order for you to compete successfully?
N.K: “You have to make sure that everything you need is packed before you go. Anything can happen, anything can break, and you need to be ready for that.”
