Harlingen CISD: Equipos De Robótica Listos Para El Inicio De La Temporada De Competencias.

Press release from the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District:

November 10, 2020

Robotics teams across the district have begun preparing for a new year of competition by making the necessary changes to ensure a safe season.

One of the changes includes the start date of the season. Competitions normally start in October, but due to COVID-19, they have been postponed to January.

"COVID has left its mark on all aspects of our daily lives, and this time robotics was no exception," said Verónica Caballero, a robotics trainer at Gutiérrez High School.

There were also changes in the organization of the competition.

“Competitions will be broadcast live from schools and scored remotely, or there will be fewer in-person events that only the team captain, driver and observer will be able to attend, compared to last year when he attended the entire team of 10, ”said Paul Tenison, a sponsor of the Harlingen High School robotics club and engineering and robotics coach.

Yet even amid all these changes, robotics teams have not allowed the pandemic to stop them.

At Gutiérrez High School of Arts and Sciences, the team began meeting on October 22. They started with approximately three students in their meetings via Zoom, but have invited more members and continue to work on their preparation for the competition.

“We have to use different ways to communicate with students via email, via Zoom, and in-person meetings,” Caballero said. "We have already started to order the equipment, to prepare our obstacle course for the competition, to build our robot slowly and to seek local mentors in our community who have experience in coding and engineering."

Gutiérrez's team is being mentored by an alumnus of the Harlingen School of Health Professions, Miranda Cano.

“We have a Texas A&M college student who is a volunteer mentor who is helping our team this year; he has experience with FTC Robotics, ”Caballero said.

At Harlingen High School, the robotics team hopes they can meet in person soon.

"My team has been meeting via Zoom to discuss design options and point strategies," said Tenison. “We hope to start building next week and have the students work on different components independently. Students who participate from home can work on marketing, promotion and the engineering notebook ”.

Ruben Hernandez, a senior at Harlingen High School and president of the Engineering and Technology Club, leads his team with a positive attitude.

"Instead of having practical control over how we design the robot, we have to give the instructions to those in the school on how to build the components we need," Hernández said. “We are currently working on building a robot for our competition and we will not let a setback stop us. Our competition is planned to take place in January next year and we will be more than prepared to face what awaits us. "

The experience of robotics teams and students is different, but they all share the same excitement and enthusiasm for building their robots. Together, as teams from each of the schools and as an entire district, they are working to create another exciting year in the world of robotics at HCISD.

"I am very excited to see what our robot will look like before the competition, and I am sure this year will be unforgettable," said Hernández.

This press release was produced by the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District . The views expressed are the author's own.