The Preuss School UC San Diego will be participating in the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) San Diego Regional Robotics Competition from March 18 to March 20 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The Preuss School’s Robotics team will compete from 7:30 a.m.- 7:00 p.m. This competition brings professional engineers and high school students together to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way against other high school competitors in the county. This will be the first robotics competition in 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participating in the competition Gael Herrera (24’) states,” I think it’s going to be fun because I’ve had experience with robotics in middle school and it sounds competitive.”

Teams of high school students are challenged to create a team “brand,” develop collaboration skills, build and program industrial-size robots to play challenging field games against like-minded competitors. In this competition, the robot will have to undertake competitions, usually involving manipulating objects like discs, cubes, or balls and being able to make a shot into a target. This makes the competition thrilling to see if the programming and build of the robot will be successful in achieving its goal. There will be strict rules given to high school students and mentors about the competition, limited time to complete the robot and for the robot to undertake its challenge at the competition, and limited resources to build the robot. It’s a great experience for those high school students who are interested in robotics, students competing can get to experience real-world engineering. Professional mentors volunteer their time and expertise to help each high school team.

Science / Engineering/Electives teacher Mr. Rupert comments, “I think this year our Robotics team will do great and the team is strong as a unit,”

Though this competition seems challenging, students will collaborate on something they share an interest in, which is robotics. Participating in Robotics can help students measure their passion for it, which might even encourage students to consider a career related to robotics. The Preuss school robotics team has a history of winning first place in robotic competitions such as, “UCSD’s Preuss School Robotics Team Wins Top Award In Region”, “UCSD’s Preuss School Robotics Team Wins Award At National Robotics Contest” and more. At the end of the competition there will be a FIRST Championship winner. The Preuss School UC San Diego is excited to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition event for the 2021-2022 season.