Overview
I was very passionate about VEX robotics in high school. I competed for four years, improving every year. In my fourth year, I founded a private team with three of my friends so we could put more time and energy into competing. Some highlights from my senior year robotics team, 606X, include:
- 400,000+ view Educational YouTube channel, VEX HEX
- Dozens of wins in regional competitions.
- Skills competition State Champion (2023)
- 24th in the world for Skills competition
Robots over the years
When I joined robotics in my first year of high school, I had no idea what I was doing, so I learned through self-teaching and VEX robotics forums.
In my second year, COVID meant I didn't have access to physical parts, so I taught myself Fusion 360 and built a virtual robot. It still wasn't very good.
By my third year, I was becoming more involved in the robotics community and was learning more advanced engineering concepts. The robot we built was limited by time and resources, and I knew my team and I had more potential.
After a disappointing performance at states, I founded a private team with three of my friends the summer before senior year. We started building with newfound energy, time, resources, and community connections.
Over the school year, I spent over a thousand hours building, iterating, and testing. I was the team lead and was responsible for the mechanical design of our robots. When we first started robotics, we didn't have much mentorship, so I wanted to give back to the community by making videos that explain complex robotics concepts and help people learn. At the World Championships, we received the Community Award for our YouTube impact.
For our third and fourth robots, we designed and tested a 4-bar catapult. This design let us shoot three foam discs so they would stick together in the air, making our scoring during matches more efficient.
World Championship Robot explanation. Explanation videos for every robot found on the channel, VEX HEX
Outcome
My experience with VEX robotics made me realize that mechanical engineering and building ambitious projects were what I wanted to pursue. High school robotics sparked my curiosity and helped me build close connections with like-minded engineers, many of whom I'm still close with today.