[JSR] Hundreds of High school Robotics Clubs compete in JPL Invention Challenge

Los Angeles High School Robotics team at the JPL Invention Challenge [Source: Author Ruleon Lee]

The Robotics Club, which I am a member of, is a school club where students establish small groups and build devices to compete in outside competitions. The club normally meets every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, after school. I've been an active member of this club for three years and will continue to be a part of it until I gradate.

Ruleon Lee Grade 11 Los Angeles High School

Every year JPL, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, holds an Invention Challenge for middle school and high school students to compete in. This event is put on to help encourage students to pursue activities in the field of science. Last year, our clubs group invented a device for the Upright Pipe Challenge, where you must move a pipe from a horizontal position to vertical. The winner would be the team whose device placed the pipe in the upright position in the fastest time, without wobbling. Once we finished the device, we competed with over 100 schools for semi-finals and finals. For the semi-finals, we were excited to win second place. During the final competition our school won third place overall. For this year's contest we are doing the Ping Pong Ball Challenge. For this, there are ten ping pong balls which must somehow, using mechanics, be placed into a glass jar. The way this works is that we need to build a device where we can shoot balls into the jar within sixty-seconds. We can only build a device up to five meters and it must be at least thirty cm away from the jar. We have recently started constructing the first fraction of the device and hope to do well in the overall competition.

I personally enjoy the Robotics Club because it helps in making good relationships with other like minded people, and I enjoy creating and coding a device with equipment and tools. The club will be associated with MESA, or Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement, including Computer Science after this first semester is over. Since these are all areas in which I am interested in, this club is perfect for me.