Apes of Wrath Make a Comeback in New Year
As all clubs and teams return to in-person the Robotics team has successfully started to prepare for competition.
By Abigail Shlimenzon
As all clubs and teams return to in-person the Robotics team has successfully started to prepare for competition.
By Abigail Shlimenzon
The coronavirus affected the functions of many school clubs and teams all across the world. The Apes of Wrath, the robotics team at Pioneer, was not spared these negative effects.
However, despite these setbacks they have continued to work hard to build a stronger and more competitive team.
One huge setback created by COVID-19 was moving in-person robotics meetings to virtual ones.
Students, such as controls captain Edison Fuh, 12, felt that the online meetings took away from the full experience of Robotics, as it was much harder to interact and bond with teammates online.
“In 2020 our meetings stopped just before Pioneer went digital and we slowly transitioned into doing virtual meetings, which we did for the majority of the rest of 2020 and the second semester and summer of 2021,” said Fuh. “Although the virtual meetings were definitely not as engaging or enjoyable as the in-person meetings, we still managed to get a decent amount of work done.”
Another obstacle that the robotics team faced was the cancellation and alteration of many competitions during the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the pandemic.
“Our 2020 game, Infinite Recharge, was unfortunately cut short due to the pandemic in March, 2020. We were fortunately able to attend the Utah regional competition in February with our robot, Red, but our other competition as well as all other competitions across the globe were canceled,” said Vice President Kelia Pound, 11. “For the 2021 game, it was a repeat of the Infinite Recharge game but completely virtual.”
The loss of competitions not only took away from the experience and readiness of the team but also got rid of an important component that drove the team forward.
“The pandemic took away the high energy environment that competition houses,” said Pound.
Despite all these challenges The Apes of Wrath have continued to push through and prepare for the upcoming season with a lot of strength, positivity, and hope.
Despite all these setbacks and challenges the robotics team has continued to work hard to build robots for the competitions.
“We’re really reaching for the stars this season. We’re making two potentially highscoring mechanisms (a high ball shooter and a monkey bar climbing mechanism). During the fall, we held a mini-competition where we split into groups and built robots to compete with each other, so everyone on the team had the skills to contribute to this big robot. I’d like to think we have the manpower and the willpower to make an amazing robot that will score many points in competitions,” said Pound.
Many people on robotics such as Brendan Donohue, 12, believe that the team is well prepared for the 2022 season.
“The team is pretty large and we have a good collection of talent,” said Donohue.
The hard work of the robotics team goes outside of building robots as they also do outreach and volunteer work to help spread their passion for STEM.
Not only has the robotics team worked hard on building robots, but they have also done a lot of volunteer work to help spread the knowledge of robotics to different groups of people.
“We volunteered at a middle school, helping kids build basic robotics kits that introduce the fundamentals of programming and machining to them,” said President Carolina Tesoro Velasco, 12. “Additionally, we were also working with the Society of Women Engineers to implement robotics workshops for the events that they run in the summer. We also volunteer with Second Hand Harvest and Toys for Tots.”
This extensive list of volunteer work has allowed The Apes of Wrath to receive a large number of grants.
“We received over ten thousand dollars in grants. This season we received the Intuitive Surgical Grant, the Bay Grant, and we are currently collaborating with the Society of Women Engineers in Santa Clara County to receive a grant from them,” said Velasco.
However, despite these setbacks they have continued to work hard to build a stronger and more competitive team.
One huge setback created by COVID-19 was moving in-person robotics meetings to virtual ones.
Students, such as controls captain Edison Fuh, 12, felt that the online meetings took away from the full experience of Robotics, as it was much harder to interact and bond with teammates online.
“In 2020 our meetings stopped just before Pioneer went digital and we slowly transitioned into doing virtual meetings, which we did for the majority of the rest of 2020 and the second semester and summer of 2021,” said Fuh. “Although the virtual meetings were definitely not as engaging or enjoyable as the in-person meetings, we still managed to get a decent amount of work done.”
Another obstacle that the robotics team faced was the cancellation and alteration of many competitions during the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the pandemic.
“Our 2020 game, Infinite Recharge, was unfortunately cut short due to the pandemic in March, 2020. We were fortunately able to attend the Utah regional competition in February with our robot, Red, but our other competition as well as all other competitions across the globe were canceled,” said Vice President Kelia Pound, 11. “For the 2021 game, it was a repeat of the Infinite Recharge game but completely virtual.”
The loss of competitions not only took away from the experience and readiness of the team but also got rid of an important component that drove the team forward.
“The pandemic took away the high energy environment that competition houses,” said Pound.
Despite all these challenges The Apes of Wrath have continued to push through and prepare for the upcoming season with a lot of strength, positivity, and hope.
Despite all these setbacks and challenges the robotics team has continued to work hard to build robots for the competitions.
“We’re really reaching for the stars this season. We’re making two potentially highscoring mechanisms (a high ball shooter and a monkey bar climbing mechanism). During the fall, we held a mini-competition where we split into groups and built robots to compete with each other, so everyone on the team had the skills to contribute to this big robot. I’d like to think we have the manpower and the willpower to make an amazing robot that will score many points in competitions,” said Pound.
Many people on robotics such as Brendan Donohue, 12, believe that the team is well prepared for the 2022 season.
“The team is pretty large and we have a good collection of talent,” said Donohue.
The hard work of the robotics team goes outside of building robots as they also do outreach and volunteer work to help spread their passion for STEM.
Not only has the robotics team worked hard on building robots, but they have also done a lot of volunteer work to help spread the knowledge of robotics to different groups of people.
“We volunteered at a middle school, helping kids build basic robotics kits that introduce the fundamentals of programming and machining to them,” said President Carolina Tesoro Velasco, 12. “Additionally, we were also working with the Society of Women Engineers to implement robotics workshops for the events that they run in the summer. We also volunteer with Second Hand Harvest and Toys for Tots.”
This extensive list of volunteer work has allowed The Apes of Wrath to receive a large number of grants.
“We received over ten thousand dollars in grants. This season we received the Intuitive Surgical Grant, the Bay Grant, and we are currently collaborating with the Society of Women Engineers in Santa Clara County to receive a grant from them,” said Velasco.