CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — Just west of Casa Grande’s historic downtown along the Gila Bend Highway students at ASU Preparatory Academy are creating high-tech ingenuity.
“Our robot specializes in speed and is very nimble. Most robots we have seen have two motors for the drive. We have four,” said Carlos Cervantes, a senior at the academy.
Cervantes and about 10 other students make up the school’s robotics team. The team founded in 2016 has competed in five straight state championships and qualified for three world championships.
They designed a robot that collects the balls on the course and flings it up through its column with a couple of rubber band pulleys. The goal – toss the balls into the hoops placed along the playing field.
“The game is actually played on a 12 by 12 field – this is your home row and that’s their home row,” said Rivaldo Contreras, senior at the academy.
ASU Preparatory Academy just won its first state title and will now compete in the VEX World Championship in May.
“It was really exciting. We were super surprised because we had never won before,” said David Reyes, also a senior. “Each year we kept getting closer and closer. Then in my fourth year, it was super exciting.”
Years of constant tinkering and hard work to come up with a winner.
“We did a lot of information gathering to find out how well how our robot fared against other robots that we thought were very good,” said Cervantes.
The team’s coach and the academy’s science teacher, Dr. Sean Mark, says the skills the students learn to go beyond competing.
“It teaches strategy. Attention to detail. You know, management skills,” said Dr. Mark.
If you think beating your opponent is the most exciting part for these young engineers – you would be mistaken.
“Meeting new people and understanding their approach to the same problem is really enlightening and you can learn a lot from it. It’s also really fun,” said Cervantes.