Coronado High School (CHS) Robotics FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams participated in their first competition of the school year November 16 at Francis Parker High School. In just its second year as a program, CHS FTC Robotics added a second team and found huge success at the competition. The two teams, named Tiki Tech and CocoNuts & Bolts to stick with an Islander theme, each faced off against other San Diego Region FTC Teams in six rounds of robot game. Tiki Tech went undefeated with a record of 6-0, leading the competition with a score of 133 points, while CocoNuts & Bolts won five of their six competitions and had one of the competition’s best robot autonomous modes.
Both teams advanced to the afternoon’s single elimination alliance competition and both teams made it to the semi-final round. CHS Robotics is coached by Roberta Lenert, M.Ed. and NASA Engineer Pete Waydo. Roberta and Pete co-coach both teams and have coached together for over five years. “We each bring a unique set of strengths to the program,” said Robert. “Together we create an environment filled with creativity, innovation, strategy and collaboration. We foster an environment where our team can thrive, push the boundaries and lead each other to success.”
New to the team this year is CHS senior transfer student Emre Ozquneri from Turkey. Emre has participated on FTC teams for the past four years and was excited to learn that CHS provides this opportunity to continue his First Robotics pathway. Emre is the main coder/programmer for Tiki Tech and one of the Competition Drive Team Robot Drivers. “We did really good this weekend, one of the best I would say. We won all the matches,” said Emre, “I am motivated after competition. I made thousands of searches to see how we can improve our robot for the next competition. I chatted with my friends [from my Turkey FRC Team] to brainstorm.” When asked about joining this team and connections he has made since transferring to CHS, Emre said, “To be with other people that have the same interests makes it a lot easier for me to adapt here. And my new friends have really helped me. In Turkey we have problems with budget and cannot build a new robot every year, but here we were able to build new robots with everything we needed to be successful!”
Madden Pederziani-Cole, a member of CocoNuts & Bolts said, “Our team did really well. It was really exciting, constant action, and being in the top 6 was above my expectations!” Madden went on to say, “It is a new family that is teaching me. We have four 3D Printers where we print handouts, robot parts, team numbers. We use On-Shape to design and Prusa Slicer to slice it and generate a G-Code File to print.”
The energy and enthusiasm of the CHS Robotics Team members is inspiring. Jaylen Cohn also shared thoughts on being a part of the team saying, “It is a sense of community, a sense of family. FTC is very welcoming, especially to newer teams. At the competitions everyone wants to help you out and make sure you are supported.” Jaylen went on to say, “My favorite thing about the robotics team is how we get to practice our coding and engineering skills. In the robotics room, if you have an idea and you present it to the team and everyone is ok with you, you really can do anything you want with that idea! You can keep branching out. It is like the real world, if you want to excel, you can definitely excel with robotics and you get results! You get recognized! You can put your hard work in and you will get great rewards out of it!”
“I am incredibly proud of this team and could not have asked for a better performance at our season’s first FTC competition,” said Roberta. “Both of our CHS Robotics teams made a name for themselves at this competition with their outstanding autonomous and tele-op robot runs. Their amazing achievements are a testament to their passion for robotics and their dedication in the robotics room building, coding, 3D Printing and working long hours together as a team to achieve such a high level of success. I am so thankful for the support of our school district, CSF and our many sponsors for making this program a reality and bringing an competitive First Tech Challenge STEM Pathway to Coronado High School.”
The CHS Robotics Team will participate in four league competitions that will enable them to qualify for regionals. Their next competition is Saturday, December 21 at La Jolla High School. While preparing for future competitions, the high school members will also mentor and coach the Coronado Middle School FLL Robotics teams.
San Diego is one of the top rated regions for FIRST Tech Challenge since its inception in 2006. According to their website, “The San Diego Region has grown to over 60 teams hailing from as far north as Hemet and as far south as Ensenada, Mexico. San Diego teams have won many awards at both the Super-Regional and World competitions including two world championships and the first ever compass award. Despite the institution of an additional qualification level (the Super-Regional Championships) from 2014-2018, our region has continued to have teams qualify and advance to the World Championship every year.”
