WACO, Texas — Greater Waco Advanced Manufacturing Academy, or GWAMA, Robotic students competed in a local competiton at the ATG Convention at the Waco Convention Center.
The number one goal for this competition is for students to both compete and work with one another while growing a passion for technology and engineering.
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It’s a battle of the bots, with a specific meaning.
“The point is to outreach other young teenagers like me and my teammates to be able to let other people join and explore the basics of robotics and STEM: science, technology, engineering and math,” says junior GWAMA Robotics student Malakai Marciel.
The greater Waco Advanced Manufacturing Academy’s Robotics team- compete and work with other teams across the area to help concept, create and dive into the operation of these robots.
“You have two teams: a red alliance and a blue alliance. During the first part of the competition it’s all randomized, so, they’ll be five matches per team. One match you can be with someone’s alliance the next you can be their opponent. The point is to score as many points as you can during the autonomous and teliop mode. Tulip is driver- based meaning there’s a human driver and autonomous is basically the program running itself to score its own points,” says Marciel.
With eight members on this year’s team, robotics instructor Joe Rizo says this program is advancing the skills of these future engineers.
“Most of these kids this is the first time they’ve ever done anything with a robot. It’s really exciting for them just to make the robot wheels move or an arm move. Each time they reach a milestone or figure out a better way to score or watch them figure out they’re autonomous, those moments of inspiration they get I think is why they’re here,” says Rizo.
Inspiring these students to aspire to greater achievements beyond the arena.
“This year has gone really good. We’ve gone from top 14, very bottom to top 4. There’s just so much. From building, to programming to learning basics, to designing anything. I highly recommend it! It’s so much fun,” says sophomore GWAMA Robotics student Nathaniel Juarez.
Having fun and learning, going hand in hand.
“Making sure that they understand that’s it’s not a me thing, it’s not I won this race, it’s about how we get together to solve problems and make this a better place,” concludes Rizo.
