The East Robotics Club had one of its best seasons this year. After coming in first place at both of their regional competitions, they advanced to the World Championship for the third time in school history.
“This year was probably our most successful season so far,” said senior Andrea Basuroski, who was the president of the club this year.
The Robotics Club is one of the largest clubs at East, with around 50 active members. It appeals to a variety of students who enjoy engineering, problem solving and competition.
“It’s a whole bunch of people working together in various different areas of expertise to build one project. That’s really great,” sophomore Ethan Kirtley said.
After success in two regional competitions and the North Carolina state competition, the team qualified for the 2023 World Championship hosted in Houston. Around 45 members of the club went on the 22-hour bus ride to compete at Worlds.
The competition was a massive event, with over 600 teams competing. It was similar to a sports event, with fans cheering on the teams in the finals, live streams of the competition, and even commentary breaking down the robotics matches. As an international event, the 2023 World Championship featured teams from 59 different countries.
“What’s really interesting is that you go and talk to people [from other countries] and they’re really no different from us. They’re just sort of nerds wanting to build robots and having fun with it,” senior Lucien Genova said.
At the competition, teams were tasked with using the robots they designed to move various objects onto platforms at different heights. Getting objects on the higher platforms gave teams more points than the lower platforms. The team with the most points after 2 minutes and 30 seconds won.
The Robotics Club progressed farther in the competition this year than they did in their previous two trips to Worlds. The 600 teams were divided into eight separate divisions, and East’s team placed 15th in their division. They then entered qualification rounds that enabled them to compete in the playoff tournament. In the playoff tournament, they made it to the semifinal round where they won their match to make it to the finals. However, a technology failure caused the match to be replayed, where the team then ended up losing.
The key to the Robotics Club’s success this year has been their leadership, teamwork and calculated strategies, according to the club’s leaders.
“The strategy that we took this year was building a simple robot as quickly as possible, and then putting a lot of time [into] driver practice so that we got very fast and efficient. We didn’t have as much raw capability as other teams, but we did everything faster,” Genova said.
The trip to Houston gave the Robotics Club the opportunity to meet various professionals who have been successful in the STEM and business fields. They were also able to witness some of the best robotics teams in the world compete against each other.
“I think the most memorable part of the trip was watching the finals [of the tournament]. The robots were just on a whole different level,” Kirtley said.
However, the Robotics Club is not only about building robots and competing in events.
“We do a lot of outreach as well,” Basuroski said. “We go to elementary schools, children’s museums, Girl Scouts etc. and we let them see the robots and drive [them].”
The Robotics Club also has a major business component. The school does not provide any funding for the club, so in order to pay the travel expenses, material costs and competition fees, the club organizes fundraisers, sponsorships, and marketing events.
