Highland robotics return from world championships in top 2.5 percent

RIVERSIDE - The Highland robotics team, The Finger Tightans, have returned from their third visit to the FIRST World Championship in the top 2.5 percent of robotics teams in the world.

Their first visit to the championship was based on winning a lottery but their last two visits have been earned with hard work and recognition of their accomplishments at the state level. This year, the world championship was held in Detroit and hosted teams from all over the world such as Romania, China and the UK.

Junior Makala Cox attended her first World Championship this year and said getting to meet and interact with people from all over the world made the experience that much more fun and exciting.

'We're like the top 5 percent when we get there, in the entire world, and it's just exciting to see who we're matched up with and who we're around,” she said. 'You hear about these teams throughout the season and follow them through social media ... just seeing and taking a step back and going, ‘Wow. We did this.' That's a big perk.”

Matt Butler, a junior, attended his third World Championship this year but agreed with Cox, saying he found it inspiring to be right next to people his age whom he admired.

'Being right there, that's something that I've noticed the last three years is being right there with the teams that I've pretty much idolized through research online and just checking out other teams' websites,” he said. 'It would be like going to an NFL game and competing with Aaron Rodgers or something.”

The robotics team itself runs much like a nonprofit business. They are split into two groups: the business side and the engineering side. Team members choose which side their abilities are best suited for and help the team from there.

In September, they receive the challenge and have about a month to build their robot and have it ready for the first competition. They spend the rest of the year improving their robot each competition.

During the competitions, they have to work with another team to accomplish a goal. At the world level, they had to work with international teams and although there was a language barrier at times, the team felt they got a thorough learning experience from competing alongside other teams.

'It's a lot of fun because you get to know these people and you get to understand the robots and win more,” said senior Luke Van Schoyck. 'You can help them and they can help you.”

Ibrahim Zayed, a sophomore, said he enjoys being part of a team that allows him to grow abilities that he will be able to nurture and use in the future.

'Robotics has to do with technology which is the driving force for the world. It's way above anything else and beneficial to society,” he said.

The team finished 36th out of 80 teams in their division, ranking them among the top 2.5 percent of robotics teams in the world. The team said they would have liked to do better but are already thinking about how they can tweak their robot and are using this as motivation to place even higher next year.