Circuit Makers

Clark Magnet High School's FIRST Robotics Team 696, which has been competing since 2001, has to create a robot, nearly from scratch, that can pick up, or catch, a large ball, and throw it into a goal.

The task, which is assigned in early January, is a national challenge to high school robotics teams to make a robot that they will use to compete against each other. Team 696 travels to Madera, Calif. for a regional competition in early March 2014. That is the first stage of the head-to-head competition.

Starting in January, when the robotic theme is announced, all facets of the student-run engineering department are put into motion. They will work together, like the gears of the robot they are making, to design, engineer, create and build a robot that is mostly made with equipment in the classroom by the students with guidance from engineering instructor David Black.

They are working toward a firm deadline of February 18, 2014, at midnight. At that time, they have to have a completed, working, remote-controlled robot that can do what the theme dictates. The robot must be sealed in a large plastic bag, with visual proof of the such, to qualify for entry.

This is their journey.

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Team member Mat Zampach, who describes himself as a "go to guy for all things," wraps zip ties around wires to hold them in place on the platform of the robot he is helping to build in the engineering lab on February 10, 2014.

Team vice president Shay Sackett tosses a large ball into a prototype robot outside the engineering lab to see if their design idea has merit on January 23, 2014.

A brace with the Clark Magnet High School's FIRST Robotics Team 696 logo on the robot the team is building in the engineering lab in February, 2014.

Aleksander Savchenkov talks with mentor Dr. Daniel Clouse, of JPL, about a future in engineering outside the engineering lab where they are helping to build a robot on February 14, 2014.

Team member Ashot Chobanyan works with a 3D animation of the "chop-choo mechanism" the team developed to throw a ball for the robot he is helping to build on January 23, 2014.

Elizabeth Abramyan sets up a CNC machine to make an aluminum part for the robot she is helping to build in the engineering lab on February 10, 2014.

Head Programmer Aleksander Savchenkov writes a program, using a language he created, to control the robot he and the team are creating in the engineering lab on February 10, 2014.

Gears, just made by student Elizabeth Abramyan in a CNC machine in the engineering lab for a robot she and her team are building on January 23, 2014.

Mach team member Alexander Luke measures a rod of aluminum he will cut into 1/2 inch spacers for the for the robot he is helping to build in the engineering lab on February 14, 2014.

Mach team member Alexander Luke helps build a robot in the engineering lab on February 15, 2014.

Mach team members Alfredo Degoma, Joshua Valerio, and Devon Taylor work on wiring on the robot team they are helping to build in the engineering lab on February 14, 2014.

Several team members create frenzy of activity as the deadline for completion of the robot they are building approaches in the engineering lab on February 18, 2014.

Team member Miriam Grigoryan photographs every part the team used for the robot she is helping to build in the media lab on February 10, 2014.

Mach team members of Devon Taylor, Joshua Valerio, Elizabeth Abramyan, Shay Sackett, Mika Grigoryan and Afredo Degoma all work on different aspects of a prototype robot they are building to see if the actual robot they will build will work, in the engineering lab on January 23, 2014.

Freshman Daniel Torres works into the evening with last year's robot working on way's to navigate it with his laptop, outside the engineering lab on February 10, 2014.

With several team members watching, engineering instructor David Black puts wheels onto a shaft for the robot he his guiding the construction of in the engineering lab on February 14, 2014.

Mat Zampach rests his chin on the robot that head programmer Jack Najarian and team president Saikiran Ramanan are working on, threading in pneumatic tubing onto the robot they are building in the engineering lab on February 18, 2014.

Team president Saikiran Ramanan and design team leader Nick Cragnotti move their nearly complete robot back into place for building in the engineering lab on February 18, 2014.

Team president Saikiran Ramanan with the robot he is helping to build tipped on it's side, gets inside to fix air leaks in the pneumatic tubing he helped to install in the engineering lab on February 18, 2014.

Team member Mat Zampach looks for breaks in the LED lights under the robot he is helping to build in the engineering lab on February 18, 2014.

Team vice president Shay Sackett and president Saikiran Ramanan, with engineering instructor David Black, weigh all kinds of parts to figure out where they will shave 4 pounds from the overall weight of the robot they are building in the engineering lab on February 18, 2014 so it complies with the 120 pound limit.

Head programmer Jack Najarian sits in the room with the laptop that will control the robot he and the team will test for the first time, only minutes before their deadline for completion on February 18, 2014.

The completed robot, designed and created by a team of engineering students with Clark Magnet High School's FIRST Robotics Team 696 on February 18, 2014 at about 11:45 P.M., minutes before the midnight deadline when the robot has to be sealed.

Robotics team members lift a heavy plastic bag over the robot they made on February 18, 2014, which will be sealed until the robot will be used in competition.

At 11:57 P.M., team president Saikiran Ramanan, of Clark Magnet High School's FIRST Robotics Team 696, poses for a photo with the robot he helped build, sealed in a plastic bag, in front of a clock to to verify the robot is done by the midnight deadline on February 18, 2014.

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