Entering a robotics competition for the first time, the Galileo robotics team, which consisted of members of the Galileo Tech Club, and partnering with students from Balboa High School, took home first place in the PiE (Pioneers in Engineering) robotics competition trophy on Saturday, April 14th, 2012 with a score of 29-6. The goal of the competition this year was to design a robot that takes tennis balls from the center of a field into a goal. Preparing for the competition took the team a total of two months, including a whole month just to design their entry.
The Robotics team could not have completed the project without a lot of help because they needed a lot of funding for the large amount of supplies it took to build the robot. Luckily, Futurama coordinator, Mr. Lee Thomas, stepped in and helped the team by funding most of the expenses for the team. UC Berkeley also gave the team $200 to buy supplies for their robot.
The tech team spent several weeks working at San Francisco State University, weekends at Balboa High School, and Thursdays in Mr. Matsumoto’s and Mr. Chinn’s room, in preparation for their competition. Overall, there were two designs that were used for the competition. The first design was composed of 3 sections, two on the bottom tier, and one on the top. It was held together with brackets and there was a vacuum that gathered the tennis balls into a rotational arm that shot the balls into the goal.
When the first design was presented to the professors at UC Berkeley, the professors found that the design was too complicated. Junior Albert Wu notes, “The professors told us about our structural faults. They helped us improve and forceive the possible troubles with our robot.” The team’s final design was a robot with a rotational center. The robot had a rotational center and was able to drive up to the tennis ball, gather it into a container, then shoot it out into the goal.
In the final competition at the Lawrence Hall of Science in UC Berkeley, besides winning the overall competition, the team also won the Judge’s Award for Excellence in Mechanical Design and Professionalism. Senior Zinyu Zhu notes “It felt great to win the competition, and we were all excited.” Junior Delan Tham explains “It was awesome when we won. I jumped out of my chair.” Before the victory, Junior Andy Wong notes, “I felt worried that we wouldn’t be able to finish before the preliminary rounds, then I was relieved when 10 out of 21 schools weren’t finished with their robots.”
The Galileo robotics team consisted of senior Xinyu Zhu, juniors Andy Wong, Albert Wu, Jiajie Wen, Justin Lee, WIllie Zuniga, Dylan Lo, Delan Tham, Corinna Wong, and Joni Truong, and sophomores Diego Lawson and Kevin Fang. They were sponsored by chemistry teacher, Mr. Paul Matsumoto and physics teacher, Mr. Woodrow Smith.
In the final competition at the Lawrence Hall of Science in UC Berkeley, Galileo won the competition with a satisfactory score of 29-6. The team also won the Judge’s Award for Excellence in Mechanical Design and Professionalism. Senior Zinyu Zhu notes “It felt great to win the competition, and we were all excited.” Junior Delan Tham explains “It was awesome when we won. I jumped out of my chair.” Before the victory, Junior Andy Wong notes, “I felt worried that we wouldn’t be able to finish before the preliminary rounds, then I was relieved when 10 out of 21 schools weren’t finished with their robots.”