Aerospace Robotics Club competes
By Ashley Shah
The Scripps Ranch High School (SRHS) Aerospace Robotics Club will be competing in the regional Aerospace Robotics competition in April in San Diego.
The team will be competing with 15 other teams from different middle schools and high schools.
“Last year, we competed in this competition. We do not know our exact placement, but we did win a few awards,” club president Logan Wheatcroft said.
There are about 10 other regional competitions that occur nationwide throughout the academic year. The teams that perform the best are able to advance to the national Aerospace Robotics competition.
“This year, we are hoping to do well enough so that we can compete in the national competition. The competition takes place at the end of May in New Hampshire,” Wheatcroft said.
The SRHS team consists of about 10 students. They have been meeting several times a week for a few hours each time.
“The first aspect that we work on is assembling the unmanned aerial vehicle, or the drone. Then, we are continuously working on programming and engineering the drone to perform semi autonomous and autonomous tasks. An example of an autonomous task would be color recognition,” he said.
Additionally, the team works on raising funds.
“We do not receive funding from the school, so we have to fundraise on our own,” Wheatcroft said. “Our club members reached out to various companies to ask for sponsorships, of which we secured funding from companies such as General Atomics and Qualcomm. We have also reached out to local restaurants for fundraisers, such as Panda Express, Dave’s Hot Chicken, etc. Anyone can donate as well.”
Wheatcroft explained what he was most proud of with the team.
“It’s been really rewarding to build something from scratch, and to see it perform these difficult tasks. Our drone is highly capable,” he said. “It’s been a great experience for students who are interested in hardware and software.”
The club, in addition to the competitions and team, focuses more on outreach to the community.
“We focus on spreading acessibility to engineering and robotics in our community. We do outreach by going to the local library to educate the youth about engineering,” Wheatcroft said.
The organization meets once a week at lunch time. There are currently about 40 members.
“We are always looking for more students to join our club, and then our team,” he said. “The best part of this club is being able to inspire other aspiring engineering students.”
For more information about the organization, email arc.srfalcons@gmail.com.
