Alumni Stories: Robotics is More Than Building Robots
By Eric Zhou, 2003-2004 Mechanical Lead, 2004-2005 Director of Engineering
If you want to read a story about a young lad whose experience with FIRST totally turned his
life around and inspired him to become an engineer, this probably isn't the one. I was
already leaning towards the path of engineering before high school, being somewhat of a
math 'n science person for most of my life. Although you could say that FIRST was the final
nudge that pushed me off the cliff. Yes, I currently am an engineering major. Just thought
I'd get that out of the way.
But really, the best part of FIRST wasn't really learning about engineering. Sure, it was
very useful. It is very nice to know things such as the fact that turning a screw clockwise
tightens it. Don't laugh. It actually took me a surprising amount of time to figure that
one out. It used to be that I would turn the bolt both ways, and would continue turning it
the way that made it tighter. But now I know, thanks to FIRST robotics. But wait; then
there are those left-handed screws. Oh dear.
The best part of robotics is really the people, the people that you work with, build with,
and more frequently, goof off with. I mean, build period isn't all about building a robot.
Well, maybe it is, but there's more. Throw twenty crazed high school teenagers into a room
full of aluminum bars and power tools for six weeks and some fun things are pretty much
guaranteed to happen.
So, I could go into all the hard work and perseverance that goes into building these robots,
the rush of build period, and the thrill of competition, but I'll leave that to my friend
Shrenik (henceforth referred to as Shrek), who is, frankly, much better at writing those
sorts of things than I am.
Polycarb Wings
Make no mistake, designing robot parts for competition is real exciting stuff. It's just
that after the fourth hour on a problem and holes still don't line up right or you just can't
figure out what the spring tension for that bit is supposed to be, the nerves begin to snap
and fray a bit around the edges. And that was how one windy day, Shrek and I, looking out
into the empty parking lot, decided for some reason that it was a simply fantastic day to go
flying. So out of the room we ran, waving our arms and leaping around, trying to get
airborne. It didn't work. But why? Obviously it was because we didn't have any wings.
So back in we run, only to return outside a few minutes later holding large sheets of
polycarbonate. Running about a while longer we were joined by Bhumit, who wanted to try
also. We handed him the wings and Bhumit too attempted to fly, at least until our advisor
Mr.Shinta yelled at him to get back inside and to put down the polycarb, as it was expensive
stuff.
Then there were those days we would all scurry up on top of one of the portables and just
hang out there. Not that there was really much to do on the rooftop, but just because the
view was better than that from ground level and that the simple fact of being on a roof
made it fun. It became a fairly regular activity until the janitors made us come down.
Another time, Galen, an alumnus of the team, came by and expressed his desire to film our
build period for a filming class of his. Several times each week he would arrive, camera
in hand, and start filming. One time, however, he mounted his camera on a tripod, set it
to take a picture every thirty seconds, and then left, expecting to have some high-quality
pictures of the build by the time he returned. One member of the team, Hawnlay, however,
decided that it would be great fun to play around with the camera. The two of us placed
several balls in front of the camera, and between each thirty-second picture snap, moved
them around so as to convey the illusion of movement. Hawnlay even took a cookie and held
it in front of the camera, taking a bite between each picture, until the entire thing was
eaten. Unfortunately, that part did not make it past Galen's editing into the final film.
During my senior year the team experienced a temporary obsession with Ultraman. I have no
idea why, except that perhaps it is because of all the superheroes ever created, Ultraman is
undoubtedly one of the cheesiest. Or it may have had something to do with the fact that one
particular member of our team, Richard, could do the most fantastic Ultraman impression.
This Ultraman obsession got to the point where we even downloaded the Ultraman theme song,
and amazingly, listened to it all the way through.
Traveling to regional competitions is always fun because we get to stay in a hotel for a
weekend, without adult supervision. Except for the advisors, but they're cool. During our
last regional, a certain PR officer and her friend, who shall both remain unnamed, came up
the bright idea that everyone on the team should wear purple hair dye during competition.
Except that they neglected to consider the fact that spraying gallons of sticky purple hair
dye on black hair hardly produces any change in color at all. So the idea wasn't welcomed
with extreme enthusiasm, to say the least. In fact, several folks decided that it would be
swell if they could get into the PR officer's hotel room and hide the hair dye, which they
did. Our anonymous PR officer and her friends returned that night quite confused when they
found that not only was the hair dye not where they had left it, but that several articles
of clothing had somehow found their way into the refrigerator and microwave.
Between going on quests for parts and performing amazing feats of robotics heroics
(cleaning up), another delightful activity that several robotics members (Rosalind and
Danica, mostly) did was to stick alligator clips on people. At first it was people in
general, but soon the clippings began to focus solely on Shrek. Maybe it was because
everyone else was too alert, or maybe it was because Shrek just had the funniest reactions
whenever he found an alligator clip on his shirt. Who knows.
By Eric Zhou, 2003-2004 Mechanical Lead, 2004-2005 Director of Engineering
Then there were those days we would all scurry up on top of one of the portables and just
hang out there. Not that there was really much to do on the rooftop, but just because the
view was better than that from ground level and that the simple fact of being on a roof
made it fun. It became a fairly regular activity until the janitors made us come down.
During my senior year the team experienced a temporary obsession with Ultraman. I have no
idea why, except that perhaps it is because of all the superheroes ever created, Ultraman is
undoubtedly one of the cheesiest. Or it may have had something to do with the fact that one
particular member of our team, Richard, could do the most fantastic Ultraman impression.
This Ultraman obsession got to the point where we even downloaded the Ultraman theme song,
and amazingly, listened to it all the way through.
Between going on quests for parts and performing amazing feats of robotics heroics
(cleaning up), another delightful activity that several robotics members (Rosalind and
Danica, mostly) did was to stick alligator clips on people. At first it was people in
general, but soon the clippings began to focus solely on Shrek. Maybe it was because
everyone else was too alert, or maybe it was because Shrek just had the funniest reactions
whenever he found an alligator clip on his shirt. Who knows.