The La Jolla High School robotics team returned this month from a tournament in Ventura County against more than 40 other schools from across the state with a creativity award and fifth place in the playoffs.
The Vikings’ Minions-themed robot and ball-firing turret were presented by nine members of the team who traveled to Port Hueneme for the FIRST Robotics Competition California district tournament March 6-8.
The La Jolla High team, formed in 2009, currently consists of 20-30 students, with support from coaches Alex Varon and Neal Palmer. The Vikings typically compete in one in-season regional event but this year are participating in two district-level competitions.
The team’s greatest successes so far include winning the 2011 Las Vegas regional and landing semifinal spots in San Diego regional competitions in 2018-19.
The Vikings next will compete at Francis Parker School in San Diego from Friday to Sunday, March 20-22.
Members of the La Jolla High School robotics team gather after a California district competition March 6-8 in Ventura County. (Marvin DeMerchant)
Senior Ruby Lind is the second-year president of the group, while senior Sean DeMerchant leads the mechanical team. Sophomore Jasmine Vaughan, who joined the group late last year, handles logistics and communications, including grant applications.
“I feel like there was a sense of camaraderie because we were all going up there together on a big adventure for all of us,” Ruby said of the Ventura County trip. “We had dinner together, we were talking about the competition, just having fun together.”
Jasmine, for whom this was her first in-season competition, said “I thought it was really exciting. Since there weren’t as many of us as [in] … local competitions before, I feel like I got to be more in it and have more responsibility.”
The competition tasked students with programming robots to shoot yellow balls called “fuel” into a bin called a “hub.” Along the way, the robots can travel over bumps, go under trenches and climb a simulated tower to earn higher scores.
The La Jolla High Vikings’ Minions-themed robot scoops up yellow balls called “fuel” to shoot into a bin called a “hub.” (Jasmine Vaughan)
Teams competed across two matches with “alliances,” or teams of three.
The Vikings ended up winning the creativity award for their unique turret design. Instead of having wiring atop the turret, the team opted to have it below. Doing so allowed the turret to spin indefinitely and give the robot more versatility.
“Every other team had limited range of motion and had electrical on the turret,” Ruby said. “So we just kind of stood out because that was different. And that’s why we won that award.”
The Vikings had fun with final touches on the design, too.
“We knew we’d have a big clear tank on our robot, and the game pieces this year are the yellow balls,” Sean said. “So when it would fill up, we would go ‘Oh, it’s [all] yellow.’ So we had to go with [a] theme [that] would fit with the color of the game pieces [and] we thought ‘Minions are yellow. Let’s go with Minions.’”
Sean, who operated the robot, had a lot of pressure on him to perform well, but his nervousness didn’t get in the way.
“I was stressed, and I was also psyched and doing really well as a team,” he said.
Co-coach Varon described the competition weekend as hectic at times but praised the team and its ability to finish the robot in time for one of the season’s earlier competitions.
He also commended the students for their progress over the past few years. Just two years ago, he said, the Vikings were near the bottom of the rankings. Last year, they were in the middle of the pack.
Varon attributes the change to viewing the group as more than just a club.
“Thinking of it as a team … was something we started doing last year,” he said. “We suddenly switched, saying instead of going to these competitions and just being happy that our robot will work, or if it doesn’t work, we’ll be spending our time trying to make that one thing work. We said … ‘Let’s be competitors.’
“I think people are starting to think … we can start winning. We can start working on this. Let’s make this better than just ‘throw some stuff together.’”
La Jolla’s Muirlands Middle School recently revived its robotics club, considered a “missing link” after years of dormancy. Campus leaders are eyeing a return to team competitions as soon as next school year.
Muirlands joins La Jolla High and La Jolla Elementary as local schools with dedicated robotics programs. Before Muirlands set out to restore its team, middle-schoolers had to compete through La Jolla Elementary’s program or — for ages 14 and up — La Jolla High’s team.
To learn more about La Jolla High’s team, visit ljrobotics.org. ♦