Watching robots in Star Wars and the Jetson’s has created debate over the notion of robots replacing humans and jobs within society. Although some are repulsed by the idea of machines taking over industries, some embrace this innovation of technology, such as West High’s Robotics Club as they take on the ultimate robotics competition.

West High’s Robotics Club has catered to the minds of aspiring mechanical engineers and programmers. This year in particular, has been a huge success for the team, taking in trophy after trophy. Placing at competitions has proven the utmost hard work and dedication of the team. When asked about this year’s constant success rate, Rishita Roy (11) replied, “The biggest factor to our success this year was learning from last year not necessarily just our mistakes, but from learning from successes that other people had as well.” Time and experience culminated to this year’s amazing success. Michael Tamaki (11) stated, “This year has been a big step forward to achieving our ultimate goal: being invited to the World Championships. With stronger management and leadership, our team is more competitive than ever, consistently making semi-finals in every qualifier competition so far. For this year, we are hoping to advance to the next level, super regional’s.” Nothing can halt the hard work and dedication of West high’s robotics Club.

Students are assigned a multitude of jobs, cultivating individual responsibility and team work within the club. Roy explained, “We have engineers who focus on building the physical robot, there are programmers who tell the robot what to do based on what physical elements it has.  There are people who may be one of the above, but mainly focus on recording everything down in an engineering notebook for anyone who wants to know what’s going on with the robot and also keep people in the community informed about what’s going on with the team in general through blog posts, Facebook updates, and pictures.”

This year has been nothing short of monumental. Chris Gonzalez (11) exclaimed, “This year we became very ambitious. We started expanding our business department so that we can afford more tools, materials and a new room to work in. With those tools and materials and a proper work environment we have been able to make a higher quality robot.” Advancement in all parts of the robotics club at West High has led to fruitful times this year.

The accomplishment of their goals has led to an unparalleled rate of success. If you would like to see what the team is up to, visit www.westtorrancerobotics.org. The club meets in the woodshop Monday through Friday, 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m., and Saturday starting at 10 a.m.