First Robotics Club (FRC)Project Y Café
By Elijah Pelofske, Teen Leader
The presenter, Andrew Erickson, is the lead mentor of Los Alamos High School FRC Robotics club 4153, aka Project Y. He began the presentation by describing what the organization FIRST is and what FRC does to promote STEM education by making robotics a sport. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FRC is a team based robotics challenge, where the team has 6 weeks to build a robot from scratch that does specific tasks for a competition, while being restricted to some design constraints. At this point Andrew Erickson invites two members of the robotics club leadership team members, Kai Coblentz and Sophia Li, to talk about their personal experiences on the club and the specifics of the team.
Some of the design constraints include a weight limit of 120 pounds, and restricted frame perimeters and dimensions. Once the robot is built, the team competes in various competitions, just like a regular sport. The team building and diversity that results from FRC has greatly benefited all of the members.
FRC teaches high school students about the engineering processes involved with making a robot, including all auxiliary positions necessary to make a club function.
