2004-2009:

The team's goal is to have a completed and functioning robot. It also had to meet FIRST's requirements so that it can be a contender in the competition. The team didn't expect things to run smoothly and they didn't take this whole matter casually. In fact, each team member worked arduously to finish their task and insist on their very best to produce the finest results. However, the team's achievement would obviously mean nothing if there were no challenges or barriers at every turn to test our abilities. We knew that we would have to face and attempt to overcome any obstacles in order for our success to be much more commendable and fruitful.

Our team is not ashamed to say that we encountered numerous problems during the whole process of this competition. In fact, we're actually proud of ourselves because we were able to use our problems as a source of motivation therefore allowing us to surpass all obstacles that faced us and just focus on our main objective. Our problems ranged from minor to major. A few of our problems revolved around missing key components from the Kit of Parts. As a result, we were unable to create the initial chassis with the transmission, which caused a setback in our itinerary. Indispensable materials also took a longer time to arrive due to poor weather conditions. Our limited budget also disabled us from buying materials in bulk. Yet, these problems were nothing compared to the major technical problems that we faced, which occurred mostly during the designing phase. Our first three failed designs completely baffled us but after much concentration, we realized that the arm design would have to consist of mostly pneumatics since they were easier to troubleshoot especially during the competition. Another big problem that we faced had to do with the pistons being too big, which caused our robot to exceed the required weight of 120 pounds. We eventually had to take out the unnecessary extruded aluminum from the piston to decrease the robot's weight. Fixing these problems took an exceptionally long time, nevertheless, our team utilized as much as we could to get back on track and force our way to a working design. Other dilemmas centered on the pressure of the draining schedule and of the competition itself, which actually caused bigger problems than we could have imagined. The demands of the competition became wearisome for the team members that we soon found ourselves clashing with each other. Yet, as matured adolescents, we realized that we must approach every situation with competence and responsibility, which caused the tension to eventually subside. Almost immediately, we were able to complete our task in a smooth manner after we learned not to let these problems strain our friendship, and most importantly, our ability to believe in ourselves.

Our team gained a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge while working on the many challenging tasks of the FIRST Competition. Not only did we learn about the building and programming of a robot, we also understood that great team effort come great advantages. This whole competition helped us become aware of the fact that being in a determined atmosphere can aid us in tackling any obstacles that may come our way and hopefully this would help us to work more efficiently in the future. It would be amazing if our team came out victorious in this competition, but even if we don't we would not regret getting into this because we know that we learned a lot. It would also prompt us to just keep on improving and working harder on any task that we plan to undertake in the future. But most of all, we are grateful and proud to have had the chance to participate in an event that made our high school life much more exciting and worthwhile.