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S4 E17 - Robotics World Championships! · Inside the OSD

• 0:00
  SPEAKER 1: From Oregon, Wisconsin. It's orange overdrive and we are often autonomous..
• 0:07
  SPEAKER 2: Today we are excited to meet up with our OHS students from the Orange Overdrive,
• 0:13
  our OHS robotics team, who recently returned from World Robotics Competition.
• 0:19
  We can't wait to hear about their experiences and all they've learned from this once in a lifetime opportunity.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER 3: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids.
• 0:32
  Here is your host, lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Doctor Leslie Bergstrom.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER 2: So welcome to our world renowned robotics team.
• 0:44
  We've been so excited to talk to you. So let's get started.
• 0:48
  Please introduce yourselves and share your specific role on the team.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER 4: Uh, my name is Gabe Nitschke and I'm the head of our business and marketing at Orange Overdrive.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER 5: Uh, my name is Anish Patel and I'm the club president.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER 6: My name is Karthikeya Konduri and I'm part of the mechanical and programing team.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER 2: Thank you. I--I'm even interested just in the different things you just described as your roles.
• 1:13
  I hope you are able to talk about that a little bit today.
• 1:16
  So for our listeners, can you explain what the OHS robotics team does and what the types of skills are involved?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER 5: Uh, yeah, totally. So, um, the Oregon high school robotics team has various subteams that all kind of do different things,
• 1:35
  um, that contribute to what our team as a whole.
• 1:37
  And I guess Gabe can start by talking a little bit about his role as our chief marketing officer.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER 2: Okay.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER 4: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like there's a lot of business and marketing skills that are very different from other like business related clubs at OHS or at
• 1:51
  other high schools, because it's not just like we're pitching to judges or it's not like a simulated kind of pitch.
• 1:59
  We're talking to real business owners and we're asking for real money.
• 2:02
  So I feel like that experience can't really be emulated in any other way.
• 2:06
  So that's been, I feel like a really important thing for us all to learn on the business team.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER 5: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER 6: Um, coming to the mechanical and programing side of things, we kind of just start off every season by,
• 2:19
  uh, you know, you know, coming together and then discussing about our game and how it's looking like this year.
• 2:24
  And then we, um, sit together, um, plan some stuff out on how we're going to design our robot.
• 2:30
  What are we going to be, are we going to be a support robot? Are we going to be like a primary shooter climber,
• 2:35
  you know, based on the game? And uh, same thing with programing.
• 2:39
  Once mechanical team is all set to go and they start designing programing, get started on their back end kind of stuff.
• 2:45
  Okay. With all their setting up all their classes and stuff and, um, and yeah, we just kind of just,
• 2:50
  you know, collaborate every day or so and then work on the robot.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER 2: So you're talking all the time. Yeah, yeah, it sounds like it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER 5: And of course, then the robotics team also does CAD design.
• 3:03
  So, um, the robots we build are big. They're costly, they're timely and they're expensive.
• 3:08
  Mhm. Um, so that means that before we fabricate anything, we want to have it digitally.
• 3:14
  So we know it's going to work. Um, so we have students, one of which is myself that will design certain elements of the robot on Onshape
• 3:22
  prior to fabrication. And then of course outreach.
• 3:26
  Um, I think it's most important for people to remember that robotics isn't just building robots.
• 3:31
  Um, we do a lot more for students that want to go in many different areas in, in their future.
• 3:40
  Like as Gabe has talked, an example would be marketing or fundraising.
• 3:44
  Um, we also do outreach, which would be like community impact.
• 3:47
  So I remember that at the end of our last season, we had done an event with the middle school where the middle school robotics
• 3:55
  students had come into the library and we did a little showcase of our robot from last year and kind of got them excited about the program.
• 4:03
  And then, of course, having a great presence in our school. So being at all the club fairs and making sure we were visible to students and really working on
• 4:10
  creating that community impact.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER 2: Well, a couple of things are standing out to me, and the first is that it takes many different talents and interests to come
• 4:18
  together to do this. Right. That's so incredible.
• 4:21
  And then the second is the outreach piece.
• 4:24
  And so how many freshmen did you have join the club or join the team?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER 5: So we--
• 4:29
  SPEAKER 2: --this year?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER 5: So we had tremendous growth. Last year, we had nine students--eight students, actually.
• 4:34
  Okay. These two were some of them. Um, this year we've grown to 23.
• 4:41
  That's amazing from many different grades.
• 4:43
  We have some sophomores, juniors and seniors.
• 4:47
  Um, of course, and we're hoping to only see that growth continue.
• 4:51
  Of course, we're losing our seniors this year. Um, but we're hoping that you know,
• 4:56
  attending worlds was a great opportunity for everyone in the school to kind of see what robotics is about and get them excited about the opportunity.
• 5:03
  Yes. And we're kind of hoping to, you know, ride that wave into recruiting for next year.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER 2: That's that's fantastic. The team as it's year two.
• 5:13
  So what was the motivation when you first started the team?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER 5: Yeah. So I can talk about this. Um, at first and then these guys can kind of jump in.
• 5:24
  Okay. When they started being involved in the process, um, the initial motivation for starting the team was to improve the Stem
• 5:33
  opportunities at Oregon High School. Um, initially, uh, I started the team in the beginning of my sophomore year in
• 5:41
  October, and I felt like Oregon high School had some Stem opportunities, but not as much as I was looking for.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER 2: Okay.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER 5: So we had Science Olympiad, we had SkillsUSA, but I wanted something deeper, something for all,
• 5:53
  like students who want to go into the Stem fields to really be passionate and excited about.
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  And initially I had looked for individual robotics competitions.
• 6:02
  Um, and the first thing that showed up when I googled it was first robotics.
• 6:07
  And I clicked on the little link and I got super excited about it.
• 6:11
  And I thought, this is what I want to do. And I had approached several teachers about advising and eventually,
• 6:17
  um, the Science Olympiad, um, advisor who, um, I was the president for that club at the time had told me,
• 6:25
  um, if nobody else does this, I'm willing to do it for the year.
• 6:30
  And I ended up being him and he was phenomenal.
• 6:34
  I think you guys could agree that.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER 2: Who's the--who's the "him"? Make sure you say.
• 6:38
  Mr. Nate Johnson.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER 5: Thank you. Um, it was a phenomenal advisor and he put so much work in to make this possible.
• 6:44
  Um, and then going from there, we kind of set up the infrastructure for the team,
• 6:49
  got ourselves registered, and then we started looking for students. And that's where the these two came in.
• 6:54
  And I guess like, you know, going off that first year was extremely stressful, getting everything started.
• 7:00
  Um, you know, just to compete can be 15 to $20,000 and I guess Gabe can come in and talk a little bit about how we raised that money our first year.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER 2: Yes.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER 4: Yeah. I mean, and I can talk a little bit about my motivation for joining the team because he was our founder and he had,
• 7:15
  you know, we're friends. He had approached me and I was like, you know, I'm not really much of a robotics guy.
• 7:20
  I can definitely say that I've become more of a robotics guy after I've joined.
• 7:25
  But I was like, but I'm totally willing to do like business and marketing because that's something I'm interested in. So and then like you said,
• 7:31
  we had a lot of costs, you know, to, to start this club.
• 7:35
  So we just started by approaching local businesses and me and him will just come in there,
• 7:40
  you know, we'll talk about the club, talk to the business owners.
• 7:43
  And then it's not just like monetary sponsorships that we're looking for either.
• 7:47
  If they have mentors that are willing to offer us experience that's also super valuable as well as materials.
• 7:53
  So all of those local businesses have been a big help in starting this club.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER 2: Well, we have a pretty great community who really step up when students want to do something.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER 4: Absolutely.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER 2: Yep.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER 6: Well, I guess coming to mechanical and programing side, I guess, um, first year was kind of stressful because we kind of didn't know
• 8:11
  what we were doing and we had to like go based off our mentors and stuff, but it was fun.
• 8:17
  I mean, we got to learn quite a bit. I mean, when Anish approached me to join the club,
• 8:22
  I was more like a programing guy because I'm like into like the software computer science stuff.
• 8:27
  So I'm like, oh, okay, I'll join for the programing. And I joined in. I'm like, wait a second.
• 8:31
  I'm interested in mechanical too, so I'll join in there.
• 8:34
  Um, I joined in, I loved it and I've been more of like a mechanical guy since then,
• 8:39
  then really, uh, you know, programing and software.
• 8:43
  Now I, I'm still am going to computer science from my degree for college, but still mechanical,
• 8:49
  you know, learning all the skills, uh, was really beneficial.
• 8:52
  I mean, matter of fact, I'm like, kind of finishing up my basement right now, and I'm using all those skills I learned from robotics really to finish it.
• 8:59
  Yeah, it's, it's coming out great. So, you know, it's, uh, life, life lessons, I guess.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER 2: And that's for sure.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER 5: I guess from that, you can kind of take like at the start of when we first started the team,
• 9:10
  you know, all eight of us were rookies. None of us knew what we were doing.
• 9:14
  Yeah. And that year, somehow we scraped together a robot and competed.
• 9:18
  And we raised the money to do that. And I think that if you just look at the amount of learning that's happened,
• 9:25
  like for Karthik, for Gabe from just one year, from two seasons of competing, um,
• 9:31
  for anyone who's listening, who may be kind of interested in robotics, think about how much a student can gain from participating in the program for
• 9:39
  three years, for four years for how much technical knowledge and experience can,
• 9:44
  can, um, be acquired by that student for just taking on these challenges year after year.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER 2: Wow. Okay, so the OHS robotics team is only in year two, and yet you qualified for the world competition.
• 10:00
  This was just like this was insane to everybody that it was.
• 10:04
  I can't believe this happened. It was such a testament to your hard work.
• 10:09
  Was this success expected so early on, and what did you consider to be the key factors that led to this achievement?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER 6: Um, we definitely did not expect us to make it to worlds in our second year, uh,
• 10:23
  starting off with this season, you know, early on, we were, uh, our original goal was to make like a support bot.
• 10:29
  Okay. Um, usually support bots are kind of like a second or third pick, uh, for alliances in terms of going into like the actual tournaments and like
• 10:37
  competitions and stuff. And we were like, oh yeah, we'll do good.
• 10:42
  And we, you know, like regional competition district wise, and then we'll make it to, um,
• 10:46
  state and then, uh, we're gonna have some fun.
• 10:48
  We have some blast and then I'll call it a day, right?
• 10:51
  Um, we're gonna learn something out of it and then move on.
• 10:54
  But, um, as going as moving on forward, we made it from, you know, like the district competitions to,
• 11:01
  and then we qualified for state. And then once we qualified, qualified for state,
• 11:06
  um, we were very fortunate enough that the, the last few sequences of our qualification matches were with the top alliance
• 11:14
  members. And those were our matches also, which I would say was our all time peak.
• 11:19
  Um, coming from me, I was part of the drive team as well.
• 11:22
  So, um, we really popped off. I would say that was our like our all time peak, uh,
• 11:27
  in terms of performance. And they really liked us.
• 11:30
  And during alliance selection too, we don't know.
• 11:33
  It happens at the moment, right? So as they were picking up, we come to the last final pick,
• 11:39
  which is number one alliance, right? For the third pick.
• 11:41
  So I'm like talking to my other team members, Logan and Sree.
• 11:45
  And I'm like, there's no way we're making.
• 11:47
  And they're like, we invite 10553. And I heard I'm like, are you serious right now?
• 11:53
  So we just go up, we're like, okay, let's have some.
• 11:55
  And then we go in, we accept it and everything.
• 11:58
  And we weren't even prepared at all for the matches.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER 2: Because you never expected
• 12:02
  SPEAKER 6: it. No, we were like, we were in the mindset.
• 12:05
  We'd just go there, uh, like just saying, you know, have some fun and then just come back and pack up and leave.
• 12:09
  Right, right. But then we got picked and then we rushed back in.
• 12:13
  We got all the robots set up quickly. Um, it was, uh, quite, we were quite unprepared,
• 12:20
  but it was fun because, um, one of our hex shaft was kind of bent and that was crucial for a shooter.
• 12:26
  And, um, basically the other team members noticed it and they're like, we need every point.
• 12:31
  So let's just quickly swap this out. And they swapped it with like five minutes left with like us going into the match.
• 12:38
  That was the final match too. And they swapped it.
• 12:40
  And as soon as they swapped it, we played. And uh, that was the same hex shaft that saved us the entire game and won us that
• 12:47
  tournament.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER 2: It was a last minute decision to change that piece.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah. And that got us probably around 5 to 10 points on the last few crucial seconds to three seconds.
• 12:57
  And that one is the game. So and then yeah.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER 5: Yeah. I just want to add Karthik is being so humble.
• 13:05
  I want to--
• 13:05
  SPEAKER 6: I want to give
• 13:06
  SPEAKER 5: a shout out to Karthik Konduri, Sree Ventrapragada, and Logan Ladell.
• 13:13
  Um, our drive team members. And just to provide a context to anybody that's listening.
• 13:17
  Um, the way FIRST Robotics works is there are robots playing a sport.
• 13:22
  So robots are split up into teams of three.
• 13:25
  So three robots per alliance as they call it.
• 13:28
  And they play a sport. So this year that sport was shooting these six inch um balls into a hub.
• 13:36
  Kind of like basketball but a little more complicated.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER 2: That's what I was watching on the live stream.
• 13:40
  Yes.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER 5: Absolutely. Exactly. And um, our role this year was more of a defensive bot, which is important because I think a lot of people take
• 13:51
  into account strategy when you're playing these games, right?
• 13:54
  You could shoot a lot, or you could stop the other team from shooting a lot, and both are viable strategies.
• 14:00
  And our drive team did a phenomenal job at defense.
• 14:04
  Um, and I really think that's what got us picked.
• 14:07
  And like I still like to, I look at this to this day.
• 14:11
  I remember we had a phenomenal round of defense playoff game seven.
• 14:16
  Yeah. Um, and if anyone else looked that up they can because I'm really proud of the drive team for it.
• 14:23
  Um, and it was talked about online on this thread called Chiefdelphi, which is like the first robotics um,
• 14:29
  thread. It's like first robotics Twitter and people from all across the world, California,
• 14:36
  Turkey, you know, Florida, we're talking about our defense that match because it was extremely controversial.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER 2: I think you were being quite humble when you described it. Yeah.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER 6: I mean, that match was actually we finished it and all and actually that was the same match that got us a red card.
• 14:55
  The head ref did not know about a rule that was, um, that prevented that red card and we would have been completely fine.
• 15:01
  We were within the limits. But there again, they're also doing their job and they're quite stressful because they've been
• 15:08
  doing it for the entirety of that day and the day before.
• 15:11
  So that happened and it went extremely controversial.
• 15:16
  I mean, as soon as that happened, I like legit had to take like a ten minute break.
• 15:20
  I had to take like a walk because I was like, because that, that brought us down to the lower bracket and we couldn't afford
• 15:29
  to lose any other match or else we were out of the game.
• 15:31
  Um, so basically I had to take a walk, come back and then, um, we won the state.
• 15:36
  Of course, after that happened and everything. Um, then the very next day, um, just,
• 15:40
  you know, taking rest and I go online and I see all the threads just talking about our defense.
• 15:46
  And then there's this guy in YouTube. Um, I can't remember the name, but he, uh,
• 15:51
  specifically analyzed our gameplay. Um, and he's the guy and a lot of robotics teams,
• 15:58
  um, actually watch that guy. So we were like, huh, that's interesting.
• 16:01
  And some of the best teams were also watching and talking about our defense.
• 16:05
  So we were like, if we just keep this up in worlds, we have a potential.
• 16:09
  So yeah.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER 2: That's amazing. So tell us about your robot.
• 16:14
  Um, does it have a name, a special ability, some attribute?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER 5: Um, yeah, I guess me and Karthik can talk about this because we did a lot of mechanical work.
• 16:25
  Okay. Uh, this year. So our robot's name is Solar flare.
• 16:28
  Yeah. Kind of going with the orange theme there, but, um, I guess our robot kind of follows the traditional process that a lot of
• 16:37
  the robots follow, which is we intake, um, balls from the ground, um, and put them in this big ha like hub Hopper.
• 16:47
  Hopper kind of in the back of a robot, which we can store about 50 balls in there.
• 16:51
  And then we line up to where we need to shoot, and then we shoot them all out with a flywheel.
• 16:56
  Um, and that's kind of how we score points.
• 16:59
  Um, and then looking at defense, of course, that's more about, you know, getting our robot in the way and blocking.
• 17:05
  And I guess, you know, Karthik was there for a lot of it.
• 17:07
  He can talk a little bit about some of the challenges we face.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER 5: Um, but yeah.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah, coming to the designing aspects, I mean, starting off, like I said, from the start of the season,
• 17:18
  we gather up and talk about how we're going to design it right this year.
• 17:23
  Um, we had three options. We could just go full shooter mode and then try getting as many balls as we could,
• 17:30
  which is kind of like a dumper robot. Mhm.
• 17:33
  Second option is we could go like a support bot, which is ours, which we could shoot defense,
• 17:38
  and we could feed the other robots in our alliance.
• 17:41
  Oh, wow. And then the third option is complete defense, uh, which, um, has no hopper,
• 17:47
  no shooter, um, and no intake. They kind of just have their robot and their bumper and they kind of just stop other teams,
• 17:54
  uh, from, you know, scoring and taking balls.
• 17:57
  And their job is also to kind of just sweep the balls across.
• 18:01
  And, uh, this year we started off with a support bot because I thought that would,
• 18:05
  that would, um, you know, we thought that that would be really beneficial for us.
• 18:10
  Um, and it.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER 2: Allows you to do both things.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah. We could do both things and which is also the reason why we got picked.
• 18:15
  Um, because there was a, another defense bot as well, but their only primary defense at state,
• 18:20
  but the team alliance captain came up to us and he was like, we picked you guys because you guys can shoot and defend really well.
• 18:28
  So, you know, that paid off well. And, uh, coming to the, you know, after coming to that,
• 18:32
  we were like, okay, we got a support bot. Now how are we going to design this? Because there was another,
• 18:36
  um, like very similar, um, kind of game on 2021, 2021, 2021, uh, game season year,
• 18:46
  uh, where it was slightly bigger balls, very similar gameplay, uh, and they kind of had like a carousel,
• 18:53
  uh, which is kind of just like, uh, what would you describe it as?
• 18:57
  Kind of like, just like a Dexter. Dexter.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER 5: Yeah, we call it spin dexter. It's like that thing that, uh, little kids spin around.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah. It's like, uh, spin dexter. What? What you do is you just intake the balls from the ground,
• 19:08
  and it goes to the spin Dexter, and it spins off into the shooter, and you just shoot it out.
• 19:13
  Um, it works really well, but then there are some flaws as well.
• 19:17
  Like it could be quite fragile if like you get hit pretty hard and stuff.
• 19:21
  So we're like, okay, let's not go for it.
• 19:22
  And we were looking at some other designs and then we finally decided with some belts,
• 19:26
  which, uh, which can be really beneficial because we just intake, it goes through the belt and it goes straight through our shooter and we shoot
• 19:32
  it out. And, um, while doing so, we were like, okay, cool everything down.
• 19:37
  And then we got to CAD designing and everything.
• 19:40
  We started working on it and, uh, we had quite some problems in midway through.
• 19:46
  Like, for example, our belts were, uh, coming quite loose from the amount of hits we were taking from the defense.
• 19:52
  Okay. And the second problem was our breaker.
• 19:55
  This was happening. Mid-competition. What would happen is our breaker is what turns our turns our robot on or off,
• 20:03
  etc. it's kind of like a crucial part to our robot.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER 2: I guess it would be, um.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER 6: Long story short, uh, we like if just say if a robot comes in and touches or just bumps a little bit as well,
• 20:16
  our breaker would just like turn off or just come off and turn off itself and it would just completely disable the robot.
• 20:22
  Oh, no. Um, so like that was happening, that maybe happened 4 or 5 times and we were like,
• 20:29
  what's happening? And then our battery started spiking and we were like, what's happening with our battery? So we had to get like a brand new batteries
• 20:34
  and everything. And we kind of had like some, you know, up and down during the district comps,
• 20:40
  but we still managed to get over it. And once we were in state, we were like, we had like only like a week still at state to prepare like week,
• 20:48
  week and a half, you know, we got through it and, uh, we started like we, it was me,
• 20:54
  Logan, and niche, uh, Logan. So Mr. Johnson had ultimate Frisbee.
• 20:59
  Yep. So it was kind of like, just like, I'm sorry, guys, I'm booked out.
• 21:03
  So if you guys want to do something else, you can.
• 21:05
  Logan was kind enough. His parents were also like, he had like a shed.
• 21:09
  Uh, they offered gathered there. We took the robot, there was four worked on it.
• 21:14
  And, um, that really helped us out for, um, state and worlds as well.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER 2: Wow.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER 5: And I see a thing here. It says a like a signature attribute, right?
• 21:26
  I think the signature attribute of our robot is duct tape.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER 6: Duct tape.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER 5: Um, and it sounds so silly, but it kind of stems off this idea that I was at almost every hour of
• 21:40
  practice we had, and I cannot think of a single hour where we went without facing some kind of problem or some kind of hurdle.
• 21:50
  And, you know, sometimes you have like a week to fix something.
• 21:54
  You know, I guess an example of that would be in our, in our hopper where we were storing balls,
• 21:58
  we were getting dead space. So our balls would get stuck and they couldn't get into our shooter.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER 2: Okay.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER 5: Um, and we had some time to fix that. We came up with some solutions and we implemented that.
• 22:09
  And then you're at competition and you know, we have this net that or we didn't have a net.
• 22:15
  We originally just had a hopper with an open top.
• 22:18
  Right. And what we found was that when we were driving around, um, balls would get into our hopper and then they would fly out when we
• 22:24
  accelerated too fast. Oh, wow. Right. Okay.
• 22:27
  So our solution to that, um, which we saw some other teams implement that we decided to implement,
• 22:31
  was to borrow some improvised netting from a team next door and put duct tape on the edges and tape it onto a robot.
• 22:41
  And it worked great. Yeah. So it's like sometimes, you know, I guess robotics teaches,
• 22:47
  you know, long term innovation, but sometimes you also have to have on the fly thinking.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER 2: Absolutely. I can only imagine the ways that this will benefit all of you as you move on in life.
• 22:57
  The ability to do this fast time problem solving is just incredible.
• 23:03
  Yeah. So describe the atmosphere at world competition.
• 23:06
  What was it like seeing and competing against teams from all around the globe?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER 5: Um, I would say if I could describe it in one word, I would say exciting.
• 23:19
  Um, but like learning and seeing all of this stuff was just exciting.
• 23:24
  And, you know, the energy, uh, at world competition, it's in Georgia Brown Convention Center in Houston,
• 23:30
  Texas, and at normal competitions, right at our like districts or state, there's one field set up and it's the entire.
• 23:38
  The entire school gym is for this one field, right?
• 23:40
  Okay. And you know, there's like pits, which are where robotics teams set up all their stuff.
• 23:47
  Um, the world competition had 600 teams and eight fields, um, spanning across probably.
• 23:56
  How long would you say. Karthik. It would take to walk from one end all the way to the other, maybe five,
• 24:00
  seven minutes.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER 6: I would go ten, ten. Yeah. Ten, 15 minutes from the pits.
• 24:04
  Yeah.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER 5: 10-15 minutes. Like funny story. I remember all the Wisconsin teams that were going to worlds.
• 24:10
  Took one semi all the way down to Houston, Texas for all their robotics stuff.
• 24:14
  And the unloading section was on the opposite end of the convention center all the way in the opposite corner.
• 24:22
  And our like pit where we put all our stuff was all the way on the opposite side,
• 24:27
  so complete as far as it could go to the right and all the way down.
• 24:32
  Um, it was the longest walk and we had to haul all of our stuff from our stuff.
• 24:36
  I like a ten minute walk across the convention center, but like.
• 24:40
  Yeah, absolutely exciting. So many people there, so many people to meet.
• 24:43
  So.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER 2: Oh, it makes me wish I had been there. How about for you?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER 6: Well, it was definitely a wonderful experience for me being part of the drive team.
• 24:52
  I got to meet with a lot of other, uh, teams from various different countries.
• 24:57
  Like I met with the Turkish team, um, some of the Israel teams, India teams, um,
• 25:04
  they were all great. We all, you know, talked about how robotics works in our countries and how it goes and everything.
• 25:12
  I made some friends. It was overall a great experience.
• 25:16
  We also got to meet the same friends that we competed with, uh, during stay.
• 25:21
  Um, but they were actually sharing the same hotel room with us.
• 25:25
  Um, so that was fun. We got, they, you know, came into our rooms, we played like uno among us.
• 25:31
  We played all sorts of games in our hotel rooms till like 10:00/12:00.
• 25:36
  To
• 25:37
  SPEAKER 2: wind down a little bit for the intensity of it all.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah for sure. I mean, those were the moments. I mean, more, I would say like playing the matches and everything.
• 25:44
  These were the moments I would say was more memorable and like kind of like fun.
• 25:48
  Uh, because these were the moments that also, you know, calmed the tension down a little bit because we're always in that
• 25:54
  stress. Um, actual me and Sri, we had our Apple watches and we checked our heart rates,
• 26:01
  um, during a match. Our average was around 160 to 180.
• 26:07
  Just standing still.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER 2: Uh, that's like aerobic activity.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah. That's not good. That is not good.
• 26:14
  And mind you, this is probably for like, um, three, two, three minutes, uh, continuously,
• 26:21
  just like, um, staying there, you know, working on it.
• 26:24
  We have to make split second decisions and everything.
• 26:26
  So we're like constantly screaming at each other.
• 26:30
  We're actually doing today, we actually had to go to the other alliance members.
• 26:34
  And we're like, I'm so sorry about the hearing.
• 26:36
  Or like, just like.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER 2: Is it because it's so loud inside the yeah, we can't hear you can't hear anything.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER 6: We can't hear anything. And we have to in the part of it is, uh, me being on Ocs and streaming,
• 26:47
  um, a driver, uh, Logan is the drive coach.
• 26:50
  So he does all the, uh, comms, like communication and stuff.
• 26:53
  So he has to yell it into our ears because we're so locked in that, um, we don't hear anything else,
• 27:00
  so we have to lock it. He kind of has to get it into us.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER 5: And just to provide context for anyone listening, Sri is the main driver.
• 27:07
  He controls the bottom of the robot. So like our, our general movement.
• 27:10
  Okay. And then Karthik is the driver would control if our intake wheels are spinning or if we're shooting right now.
• 27:16
  And then Logan has drive coach kind of communicates with them as well as the other two teams that are alliance,
• 27:22
  their job coaches to make sure everyone's working together coherently.
• 27:26
  So it's kind of like a big process of, you know, everyone trying to collaborate,
• 27:32
  um, All at the same time.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER 2: And nobody wears headsets. No, no.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER 6: I mean, some people wear like earplugs so that, uh, they don't have any, like, you know,
• 27:40
  hearing issues, but.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER 2: Uh, hearing
• 27:42
  SPEAKER 6: loss? Uh, but like, yeah, it's quite loud.
• 27:44
  I mean, one time there's this buzzer that kind of went right next to me and I was like,
• 27:49
  ouch, that hurts.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER 5: Those robots are loud. They're like so big.
• 27:54
  And like, our robot was like 114.6 pounds.
• 27:58
  Uh, I think last year robot, like the heaviest I saw for robot was 134.9.
• 28:04
  Wow. And like the max last year was 135.
• 28:06
  This year it was 115.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER 2: And they're crashing into each other, right?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER 5: So a lot and you know, they're trying to shoot these balls.
• 28:12
  They're so fast and they're trying to shoot balls. So they got these big heavy wheels spinning up and it's loud.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER 6: I actually got one thing. So one of the matches, I still remember it as crystal clear.
• 28:24
  The one of the other robots kind of slammed into our drive station.
• 28:28
  We kind of have like our laptop set up, which it manages and communicates with their robot controllers.
• 28:34
  It slaps so strong like the laptop flew across the thing and fell on the ground.
• 28:39
  And I was telling Logan I was like, do not touch a single key.
• 28:42
  Just slowly pick it up and just hold it like that.
• 28:46
  If you miss click anything, it's going to turn out the robot.
• 28:48
  Oh.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER 2: No wonder your heart rate's up. These are tense moments.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah, I was just like startled for a second.
• 28:55
  I'm like, this just happened.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER 5: I mean, yeah, like, like I said, you know, the robots are fast.
• 29:00
  They're heavy. You're standing behind this like this like wall.
• 29:04
  And still the robot bumps into the wall and it knocks all your stuff off.
• 29:07
  It's like that big unless you Velcro it down to the table. So it's.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER 2: Oh, that's another piece of learning. Will you Velcro it down to the table next year. Wow.
• 29:14
  Yeah. Okay.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER 6: Soreness where his off season goal is to make like a complete drive station.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER 2: Oh man that's great.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER 6: It'll be all
• 29:22
  SPEAKER 2: good. So what is something you learned or a new technique that you observed that you plan to implement next year?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER 5: Well, I mean, I guess, Gabe, if you would like to start about some, like learning you did with the marketing side.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER 2: Yeah.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER 4: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like, you know, competing at worlds, we definitely had to up our fundraising from last year just
• 29:42
  because, you know, we had more things to compete in and competing costs money.
• 29:47
  And that's another thing about our club as well that we didn't talk about is just that we want to make sure that for the students, everything is free.
• 29:53
  If they need it to be, that's great. So then that way it's open to everyone.
• 29:57
  Anyone can join. And that's how we get a lot of team diversity too.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER 2: That's amazing.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER 4: Yeah. And so being able to go and then have more opportunities to fundraise, I just feel like that's,
• 30:09
  it's not necessarily a specific technique, but you learn, you know, smaller techniques of just what to say to sponsors when
• 30:16
  you're trying to pitch with them, keeping the relationships going with them.
• 30:19
  Like now we have a newsletter that goes out.
• 30:21
  So then that way they can see what's, you know, make sure that we're doing good things with their money,
• 30:26
  hopefully doing them proud.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER 2: That's so smart, so smart.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER 5: Yeah. I mean, like, I think that on the marketing side, like there's so much to gain.
• 30:37
  Like we've, we've done so much amazing work there and like just continuing to get,
• 30:41
  I mean, like this year alone, we spent, I mean, this year was an expensive year.
• 30:45
  We went, we went to Houston, Texas on, I think we spent $48,000.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER 2: Oh my goodness.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER 5: On robot and funding and transport and registration.
• 30:53
  So things can be quite costly, but getting as much support as we can from businesses,
• 30:57
  from schools, from from, you know, parents like everything helps.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER 2: I think you earned a DPI grant too, didn't you?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER 5: Yes we did. So we get that every year from the government for being a robotics organization.
• 31:09
  Um, but I guess a new technique that I learned, uh, I'm trying to think of my favorite because I've learned.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER 2: He learned so many.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER 5: From quite a lot. I think the biggest thing I learned this year, and like a leadership sense would be like encouraging students to collaborate,
• 31:27
  you know, like we've seen like the traditional like, like the, the connections and friendships from last year grow and then,
• 31:34
  you know, growing from 8 to 23, we've seen new students get involved and kind of incorporate themselves into those friendships and kind of as a leader,
• 31:43
  encouraging everyone to work together to solve a common problem without like major conflict,
• 31:48
  right? Um, it is a skill that I.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER 2: It
• 31:51
  SPEAKER 5: is, I think, very much value.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER 2: So that's, that's really amazing. Okay, so I know that, um, a couple of you, uh,
• 31:59
  here were invited to be on the news to talk about the world competition.
• 32:03
  What was that experience like?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER 6: Um, well, starting off quite nervous. Uh, I mean, I looked at the questions and everything,
• 32:12
  but I was like, I probably won't be that bad until I went into the studio and I'm like,
• 32:16
  oh, so things are real. Uh, you know, sat down and had, you know, kind of was nervous until,
• 32:24
  you know, the, the lady, uh, she came in and, the reporter, she was really nice.
• 32:30
  Uh, she talked with us. She made us comfortable, you know?
• 32:33
  And then after that, it was all pretty good.
• 32:35
  It was everything. It was exactly like how it was shown.
• 32:38
  We were just, like, staring at like, maybe like 5 or 6 cameras at once.
• 32:44
  So I was like four different cameras, two different cameras over there.
• 32:47
  I'm like, oh, wait, oh God, which one do I stare at?
• 32:50
  So, uh, so I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna stare stare directly at her so I don't have to stare at anything.
• 32:57
  So yeah, it all went really great. Um, it was a fun experience.
• 33:01
  And I think it's a once in a lifetime kind of thing, so.
• 33:04
  Oh, I don't know.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER 2: You guys might be back in front of the cameras for other cool things.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah, sure.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER 2: Yeah. How about you, Anish?
• 33:10
  SPEAKER 5: Um, you know, I would say that I was initially nervous going in.
• 33:14
  Like I, I had done the OCA media interview, but that was not live.
• 33:19
  This was like live and it was a different experience.
• 33:22
  But she was super friendly and super supportive and she really, like made the conversation flow and made it easy to talk.
• 33:29
  And that kind of like eased the nerves. It was a good experience, I feel like.
• 33:33
  And you know, my family members come up to me and ask to watch it.
• 33:37
  Yeah, yeah.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER 6: As soon as it ended, my mom called me like I was driving back and my mom is like,
• 33:43
  we tried looking you up, but we couldn't find. I'm like, don't worry, I have the video. Just.
• 33:47
  I'll show it to you once I get home. I'm driving right now.
• 33:50
  So that's.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER 2: That's the experience all kids would have if they were on TV.
• 33:57
  Yeah, yeah. So you started with this niche already a little bit beyond the technical skills,
• 34:03
  what's the single biggest learning you will carry with you from being part of the team?
• 34:07
  And you talked about helping people learn to collaborate without conflict.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER 5: Yeah. I mean, I guess like even outside of that, the biggest thing I learned at worlds that I really want to take was I attended
• 34:19
  a session on building sustainable teams in schools.
• 34:22
  Oh, okay. And I kind of talked to a panel of different, um, educators.
• 34:28
  And it was a wide range, you know, there was educators, there was an educator from Pennsylvania in a huge school.
• 34:34
  There was an educator from Hawaii with limited resources.
• 34:37
  There was an educator from a small town in Missouri with a population of less than,
• 34:41
  less than Oregon, um, and kind of seeing all their experiences and how they built a team that's been around for more than,
• 34:47
  you know, more than 2 or 3 years. Um, and I kind of want to take that knowledge and incorporate it into a district like Oregon so that Oregon can continue to
• 34:56
  have the impact that it does to robotics for years, even after I graduate.
• 35:00
  Ah. And then, I mean.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER 2: That's a legacy. That's good.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER 4: Yeah. I feel like just being a part of a group, being a part of a team, there's so many different aspects to that.
• 35:12
  I now this year, like, you know, we've had so much growth from eight students to 23.
• 35:17
  Now we have some more people on the business team.
• 35:19
  And I want to be a business management major when I, you know, go to college And so that's been great to kind of get to see what
• 35:28
  that's about. And I feel like actually, I'm kind of realizing all of us are going into majors that go with our role on.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER 2: The club, right?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER 4: So that's cool. And I mean, that learning is definitely going to carry over into our futures.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER 2: Very applicable.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah. I mean, coming to me, I would say trying out new things.
• 35:46
  I mean joining this team. I was like, oh I'm going to do programing.
• 35:50
  Now I'm in mechanical. Now that I left programing to Assad, I still learned.
• 35:53
  As a matter of fact, I was during the comp two, I was learning how to do the auto for robot because there's like an auto phase
• 36:00
  where the robot is all by itself purely based on code.
• 36:03
  And I learned that I did it and, um, it was useful.
• 36:08
  And that was during worlds. But you know, aside from that, I joined in and I was like programing,
• 36:14
  but then I tried out mechanical because I was like, oh, let's give it a try.
• 36:17
  And I loved it. So I'm like moving that forward.
• 36:20
  I'm like, I'm gonna try out new things from now on.
• 36:23
  Come out of more of my comfort zone, try out new things.
• 36:26
  If I don't like it, I don't like it. If I like it, great.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER 2: Um, that is a super great lead in to the next question, which is how would you suggest that other students who might be listening get
• 36:35
  involved or joining the team or join the team?
• 36:38
  Because you're saying, get out of your comfort zone, try something new?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah, I mean, one thing I want to mention is, uh, don't be afraid to try out new things.
• 36:50
  And especially this robotics team. Like I said, none of us knew what we were doing our first year.
• 36:56
  Matter of fact, we didn't even know, um, some of the tools how to operate them.
• 37:00
  Uh, we learned everything. I mean, even though we're second now going on our third year,
• 37:06
  uh, we're still looking for new members.
• 37:08
  And we always tell them we're like, you don't have to know anything.
• 37:11
  We teach you everything. And the first thing we did this year as well is take the new members,
• 37:17
  put them together with like, uh, you know, like a team member from the old, you know,
• 37:22
  last year. And, uh, we made sure that, um, they collaborated and, uh, you know,
• 37:27
  the, the guy who was before the veteran, I would say, uh, you know, he's teaching everything.
• 37:32
  And once, you know, they think, oh, they could do for themselves, like the, the new person,
• 37:37
  I think they could handle it by themselves.
• 37:39
  Um, we were like, okay, cool. You could start work.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER 2: You developed a mentoring system.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah. Mentoring system.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER 2: That's pretty amazing.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER 5: The single thing I can say on how other students should join the team.
• 37:49
  Uh, my name is Anish Patel ANISHPATEL. Email me!
• 37:54
  Um, we do not require experience to join.
• 37:58
  I feel like when we're at stands, students come up and be like, this looks so interesting, but I don't know anything about robots. You know,
• 38:04
  I had a good friend, Rowan Q. A special shout out.
• 38:07
  Um, she comes up to me and she's like, like, I really like building things, but I don't know anything about robotics.
• 38:12
  I don't know anything about how to build robots. And I said, I don't care.
• 38:16
  Um, come join and we'll teach you. Um, it's not about, you know, expressing what,
• 38:20
  you know, it's about learning more.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER 2: Wow.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER 5: That's something more special. Shout outs.
• 38:25
  You know, Rowan Q, Elizabeth DiMola, Everett Lorenz, Ashley Cooke, Duncan Kosharek,
• 38:29
  all students. I'm sure I'm missing somebody.
• 38:31
  I'm sorry if I didn't give you a special shout out there. Um, all students who came in with,
• 38:36
  um, on their first year of robotics being this year and learn so much to the point of which,
• 38:41
  you know, at state, I can see them like helping some of our veteran members like a lot with fixing a robot up and like,
• 38:49
  it's just proof that you can come in not knowing things, um, and still learn a lot.
• 38:55
  Yeah. Some bottles up there too.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER 4: Yeah, absolutely. And I would also, like he said earlier in the podcast, robotics is not just about building robots.
• 39:04
  I would love to have more people on the business and marketing team, our Fbla club,
• 39:09
  future Business Leaders of America. I'm hoping that I'll be talking to you guys soon,
• 39:13
  because of course, we are losing our seniors and I would love to have more underclassmen so we can keep this going.
• 39:19
  I don't think I've even laid a finger on the robot.
• 39:22
  And I love being a part of this team.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER 2: Wow. That's that's so great. All right. So Karthik, you are our senior.
• 39:31
  How has your experience in robotics influenced your future plans and what's next for you after graduation?
• 39:38
  SPEAKER 6: Uh, for me, it kind of cleared out and like made my pathway kind of clear on what I want to do.
• 39:46
  Um, there are some aspects of me, like kind of I was before I was like, more like,
• 39:50
  I'm just going to go into purely software, but now I'm kind of leaning towards more like getting computer science and then,
• 39:56
  uh, leading a little bit into like robotics kind of stuff too, but like in like real life world,
• 40:01
  like kind of like using robots to like helpful stuff, like medical stuff too.
• 40:05
  Right. And, um, I'm doing a youth apprenticeship and I work as an it for a hospital right now for UW health.
• 40:13
  So that kind of ties in and I'm kind of looking into that and, uh, my plans for after graduation is,
• 40:19
  um, going into UW Whitewater for a computer science.
• 40:23
  I'm gonna get my computer science and hopefully start working on some certifications.
• 40:28
  And, you know, going into like this robotics AI kind of world and do better for the world.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER 2: That's wonderful. So do any of you have final words of wisdom or encouragement for younger high school students who are still finding their way and
• 40:44
  considering whether or not they should join the robotics program?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER 5: Um, join, just send me the email, sign the sheet.
• 40:54
  Um, just get yourself in that room for, for 20, 30 minutes and see how you feel about it.
• 41:01
  Um, we do, we take great steps to make sure students don't feel obliged.
• 41:06
  Like they can come in into an environment where they can contribute, uh, as much as they want and,
• 41:13
  and be as passionate as they want, hopefully very passionate, but as passionate as they want about the program and help with the team and
• 41:20
  participate. And even if you even if you think you don't know enough, even if you're nervous about it,
• 41:26
  um, even if you're intimidated by the team, just come and join.
• 41:30
  And I promise you that everyone's going to be as friendly as possible and teach you anything and everything that you would need to know,
• 41:37
  um, as long as you come and join.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER 6: Yeah. I mean, I would say try it. And, uh, one thing I want to mention is a lot of our,
• 41:44
  uh, group members or team members, uh, they have sports and a lot of people who are going to join,
• 41:50
  they're going to be like, oh, I have sports. I don't know if I'm able to manage it. Right.
• 41:54
  Um, one thing I want to mention, you're not like entitled to coming all the meetings,
• 41:59
  please come in when you're free. Um, and, uh, let's just say for me, ultimate Frisbee,
• 42:04
  right? I tell our advisor for robotics, and he's also the advisor for ultimate Frisbee,
• 42:08
  which is, which is kind of easy on me, but, um, I go up to him and tell him, like,
• 42:13
  I'm gonna split it off so that I could do Frisbee and this.
• 42:16
  That's great. And we do weekend sessions for Saturdays every Saturday we do them,
• 42:21
  um, from like 9 to 4 ish kind of thing. And you could drop in any time you want.
• 42:28
  You could stay however long you want. You're not entitled to like this amount of hours or like this amount of contribution.
• 42:35
  Uh, you could just try it. Uh, whether it's, uh, you know, an hour, ten minutes,
• 42:39
  anything, to be honest. If you like it, uh, you can always, you know, stay back and learn more stuff.
• 42:46
  And, you know, we welcome you with open arms.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER 4: So yeah, going along with the theme of what those two have said, there is a spot for you and your skills.
• 42:55
  It doesn't matter what your skills are. We have value for your skills.
• 43:00
  So just come in and join and we'll figure out what your spot is going to be.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER 5: Yeah.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER 2: Sounds so inclusive and welcoming. I just it just makes my heart so happy because you're doing such cool things that are so applicable to everything
• 43:13
  you'll do next in life. And you're doing it in a way that's kind and welcoming and inclusive and wow.
• 43:20
  So much to be proud of. So thank you for sharing your experiences.
• 43:24
  And before we go, I want to make sure to mention and thank club advisor Mr.
• 43:30
  Nate Johnson, who helped make this experience possible.
• 43:33
  We're super grateful to Mr. Johnson. I know all of you are as well.
• 43:39
  Remember that you can find links to all episodes of Inside the OSD and submit topic ideas on our website at
• 43:46
  oregonsd.org/podcast. You can find this podcast anywhere you can find podcasts.
• 43:54
  Make sure to subscribe if you're listening on one of these apps to get notifications on the most recent episodes.
• 44:00
  We'll see you next time on Inside the OSD, where it's all about the kids.