When it came time for Thacher School junior Grace Huber to fulfill a longtime dream and get involved in competitive high school robotics, she looked over the hill and about three miles southeast, where the OVS robotics team was willing to share how it had established a winning tradition.
Being a part of a competitive robotics program is something Grace has wanted to do for years.
“I wanted to do it in middle school, and my middle school didn’t have it,” Grace said. “I expected that Thacher would have one, but it doesn’t.”
At Thacher, there is a robotics club for interested students, but not a formal competitive robotics program. Since Grace’s freshman year, the school has been trying to start a robotics team on their own.
“We did robotics this year in a class at Thacher, but we are working with Legos,” Grace said while looking at the moving robots on the field. “It is really not the same as working with these real robots.”
Thanks to OVS robotics coach Christopher Westcott’s own relationship with Owen Coyle, the computer science teacher and robotics teacher at Thacher, the two schools have been able to work together this year.
Last year, Mr. Westcott encouraged Mr. Coyle to build its own robotics program and suggested that he bring some of his students to the league meet. That’s where some of the students got interested, including Grace.
Grace seized her chance, and made a special arrangement with both schools, so she is able to come and be a part of the competitive robotics team at OVS.
Grace, a boarding student who comes from the Bay Area near San Francisco, often grabs a ride from Mr. Coyle to the OVS campus to take part in the robotics LEAP. Sometimes she just bikes to campus by herself.
Mr. Coyle is so happy and grateful that Grace has had the opportunity to work with the OVS robotics team this year.
“Mr. Westcott, Mr. Sittig, Ethan, and the rest of Team Spudbot have all been so kind and welcoming to Grace, as well as patient, helpful, and collegial with me,” Mr. Coyle said. “I hope we can find a way to repay all of your generosity some day!”
By learning the ropes from a more experienced robotics team, Grace will be able to bring the best practices and experience she gains from working at OVS back to Thacher and help us get off on the right foot next year.
Last weekend, OVS robotics went to Palmdale Aerospace Academy to compete with “League I” during the “Inter-league Tournament (ILT),” and Spudnik earned a spot in the regional meet in March.
Grace is on the Spudnik team, which is mainly made up of older students (juniors and seniors), who are experienced enough to take care and manage the team on their own.
On the team, Grace helped design the claw, which the robot uses to grab blocks, making the capstones, and did rewiring earlier this week.
“I learned so much, because I haven’t been able to do competitive robotics before, then I kind of like came into this without knowing much,” Grace said. “I got to learn the programming behind doing it, a lot of engineering, concepts, and also just having the chance to talk to kids outside of Thacher, which is amazing.”
In order to help to build up the competitive team at Thacher, Grace is taking notes about the way OVS organizes its teams, as well as the different types of equipment OVS has. Additionally Mr. Coyle has been coming over for visits when he drops her off and picks her up, from time to time.
“I love doing it, it has been amazing,” Grace said. “The team has been so welcoming, I got to learn so much, I am thankful for this experience.”
Grace is a great addition to the team. She works hard, and she stays late. The rest of the team is appreciative of her participation.
“She is part of the team, we are doing well,” said junior Spudnik member Ethan Gao, who Grace usually works mostly with. “I think we can go far with our current robot.”
Mr. Westcott is also very delighted about Grace’s participation on the OVS robotics team.
“It has been really great, a win-win situation for the OVS robotics team and the future Thacher robotics team,” Mr. Westcott said.