The LEE Robotics club pre-season is officially underway at LEE High School and has everyone eager to get into the jump of things. The Rosbots are in their 11th season of FRC after its incredible run to the FRC World Championship last season. That’s right, the Rosbots are one of the best teams in the World.
Robotics at LEE isn’t just people building robots, it’s a family that works together to solve problems, travel city to city, and compete against the best in the world. FRC or FIRST Robotics Competition is the competition the Rosbots compete in. Think of it like UIL here in Texas but the entire world competing in the same game.
FRC and Robotics in general is more than a competition. It’s a learning experience for the students and coaches to improve their problem solving skills in the real world as well.
The Head Coach is Mr. Giovanni Neri, and although last season was his first season coaching, he has embraced the challenge and hasn’t looked back. “I had never coached a robotics team.” “But from what I heard when I came in they said they told me that it was a lot of fun and they work well together,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was getting into, definitely, but you know, I figured it out and I’m glad I did it in the end.” Coach Neri said.
When asked what his favorite thing about coaching robotics was, Coach Neri said, “working with the kids.” “They’re very motivated,” he said. “Teaching them real world skills like communication skills, technical skills, engineering skills and design skills has been very beneficial especially going to competitions and meeting teams from all over the world teaches them great networking skills.”.
When club President Sebastian Rodriguez was asked what Robotics means to him and the team he responded, “It means a lot to accomplish our goal of giving students a head start on their careers, mainly STEM careers in high school.” Robotics has been a pillar of the STEM Academy at LEE and at Nimitz.
Although the team is mostly composed of STEM students, anyone on campus can join the club. This includes ISA, NESA, and LEE proper. If you are interested in joining the team, it is a little late but everyone is still welcomed to join and learn about Robotics.
“Robotics is definitely the best club at LEE,” Rodriguez said. “We started with 92 students being one of the biggest clubs at LEE and we are also one of the most diverse.” “There’s a task for everyone in robotics to have fun with and be good at,” he said.
Since Meet the Rosbots on Thursday, Aug. 28th, where students interested in the club come to learn more about the club, members, requirements, and FRC related topics, the team has been meeting every Tuesday and Thursday after school in the engineering lab. New members have been settling into their sub-teams to get ready for the new season and the offseason event: TRI.