Competition Season, Offseason and Experience

The robotics season is a few month period where students meet with their team to design a robot in response to the game, which changes every season in order to make necessary new designs each year.  There are a couple months before competition itself which we call "build season" because it is when we plan, make schematics for, and build the bot itself.

We then begin "competition season" with our first official game, where our bot will be on a team against other bots and be ranked.  Throughout competition season, we continue to improve our bot just like build season.  If we place well enough against other teams in these first events, we will have a chance to move on to state competition, just like how you'd have a state competition in cross country or any other sport.  Unlike most sports, however, there is also a chance to qualify for the world competition if we also fare well in the state competition.  In the world competition, teams from countries all around the world have the opportunity to play with and against one another.  

This sounds simple enough.  We build a robot in response to a prompt, then have it compete against other bots with the aim of eventually placing in higher levels of competition.  

But that's just the half of it.  When competition ends, the "off-season" begins, which is the period of time between seasons without any official games occurring.  The off-season stretches from the very beginning of summertime to January, where build season for another year then kicks off.  During the off-season, outreach becomes paramount, and it is here that the true importance of robotics becomes realized.  

Using the skills of teamwork, professionalism, know-how, and practicality that we naturally develop through each robotics season, our team then turns to the community and asks itself how we can positively impact those around us.  During COVID-19, we held a blood drive and made custom ear-savers for mask-wearing paramedics.  We make visits to places like the Logan Autism center to inspire children to explore STEM and excite them about opportunities in their careers, aid the community in times of crisis, and help others like only we can by hosting events like STEM camps for kids who would otherwise be unable to access the hands-on educational learning at our disposal.  Through actions like this, we seek to give back to our communities.  

And our team is not alone in these endeavours -- volunteer-work and activism is so paramount to robotics itself that the most prestigious award in all of robotics (the Chairman's Award) is entirely centered around community aid and involvement.  It should also be mentioned that outreach is an important part of the entire year, not just the off-season.  It does tend to be more concentrated at that time due to the additional time on our hands, though.

In addition to forming strong emotional centers, however, this forged community also provides unequaled opportunities for career growth.  In the process of constructing our bot, our team interacts with manufacturing companies and others from all over the STEM field.  It is more common than not to receive offers for internships, apprenticeships, or even job offerings from these locations.  With such a head start in high school, we often find that this sport of ours provides a stepping off point into professional life.  With the connections formed within our community, similar career opportunities can also be found from the very areas that we aid in outreach.  

These developed skills from robotics have also begun to be recognized as the advantages that they are from companies worldwide, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship funds are offered to the students in robotics.  A robotics member often will find the simple credential of being involved with a team to prove very swaying amongst STEM companies as well, providing to many a much easier job-finding experience.  

So robotics is a sport that encompasses many things -- it prepares us for the future, arms us with bonds and confidence in ourselves, and reshapes the community around us for the better, all while still remaining a fun experience to have in-between school, extra-circulars, and other sports.