Robotics teams qualify for state, national contests

Three robotics teams whose members attend Chino Valley Unified School District schools have qualified for state and national championships based on their scores from recent competitions.

Bluebots, an all-boys team from Canyon Hills Junior High in Chino Hills; Omega, a boys and girls team also from Canyon Hills; and Chino Hills Girls Robotics, an all-girls team composed of Ayala High students, are eligible for the California State VEX Robotics Competition in March 2018 and the U.S. Open Robotics National Championship in Iowa in April 2018.

Bluebots members are Zak Zuhlke (captain), Steven Tjandra, Aaron Venugopal, Casey Sarmiento, Nicholas Chou, Adrian Spitzzeri, Rohan Patel, Robbie Travers, Anuj Patel, Ethan Chang, Matthew Chang, and Oscar Shi.

Omega members are Jazmine Chua (captain), Roy Ioriya, Steve Lee, Samantha Go, Viviana Tran, Dylan Kha, and Katie Chou.

Chino Hills Girls Robotics members are Oishee Das (captain), Elaine Cao, Jace Tiang, Sidney Ackerman, Shelby Wu, and Kristen Alecxih.

Bluebots, Omega and other Canyon Hills teams meet for an hour after school, under the guidance of teacher Jamie Cabase.

Chino Hills Girls Robotics meet on their own and are helped by parents.

The teams, who begin with a set of robotics parts each spring, brainstorm, design, build, program, and refine their robot throughout the competitive season.

The three teams have excelled at this year’s VEX Robotics challenge to have their robots stack cone-shaped weights on top of each other. Each weight is four pounds. Teams can win by stacking more cones than their competitor, but awards are also presented for the quality of the robots they build, and the skills they use to deploy their robots.

During the competitive rounds, each team forms an alliance by joining forces with two other teams. Each alliance is only allowed to compete with two robots at a time, and they must switch out one robot in the next round. Team captains employ strategy when forming alliances, seeking teams that have specific skillsets or winning robots.

Bluebots qualified for the state and national championships when it won the overall Tournament Champion award at a competition on Sept. 14 in Poway. They also won the Build Award and Skills Award over all robotics teams attending a competition Oct. 14 in Calabasas. And they still have several robotics contests ahead before the competitive season ends next spring. They recently won the Build Award and Tournament Finalist on Oct. 28 at a tournament in Chula Vista.

As of mid-October, Bluebots was considered the #1 junior high robotics team in the United States, #2 of all grade levels in the United States, and the #15 overall team in the world.

Bluebots Captain Zak Zuhlke chose an unorthodox strategy when he formed alliances with a 10^th place and 21^st place team, advisor Cabase said. At the time, Bluebots was in fourth place overall in the competition. The unusual decision paid off when the team took Tournament Champion.

Omega qualified for state and national championships at an Oct. 14 competition in Quartz Hill. They won Tournament Finalist and the Design Award.

Their strategy for the big competitions ahead is to “practice a lot,” improve their robot’s programming to pick up the cones, and to work on its autonomous (ability to move on its own) skills, which the team said are a big part of scores received at robotics contests.

Chino Hills Girls Robotics bested more than 35 other teams when they snagged the Excellence Award on Oct. 14 at Damien High in La Verne. The honor qualified them for the U.S. Open Robotics National Championship. It is considered the highest VEX Robotics award, said team parents. They also won Tournament Champion and the Build Award on Sept. 9 in Poway, paving the way for the state championship.

The team mentors teams at Canyon Hills Junior High, where four of their members were involved in robotics.

Chino Hills Girls Robotics has invited Ayala teachers to attend a competition in early November at Don Lugo High, in hopes that one of those instructors might become their advisor.

Pictured above:

Members of the Bluebots robotics team at Canyon Hills Junior High are (from left) Robbie Travers, Ethan Chang, Nicholas Chou, Zak Zuhlke (captain), Rohan Patel (holding robot), Anuj Patel, Casey Sarmiento, Adrian Spitzzeri, and Aaron Venugopal (sitting). Not pictured are: Matthew Chang, Oscar Shi, and Steven Tjandra.

Members of the Omega robotics team at Canyon Hills Junior High are (from left) Roy Ioriya, Steve Lee, Samantha Go, Viviana Tran, Katie Chou, Jazmine Chua (captain), and Dylan Kha.

Chino Hills Girls Robotics team members are (from left) Elaine Cao, Jace Tiang, Sidney Ackerman, Oishee Das (captain), Shelby Wu, and Kristen Alecxih.

(11/6/17)