Optimism runs high for robotics team

As the bell rings for the end seventh period, senior Naveed Riaziat makes his way to the robotics room located in the corner of band quad in room 903.

As he enters the blue peeling door, he is met with the familiar smell of grease and the sight of metal parts strewn across the room. He walks swiftly to the array of desktops located at the back of the room and begins his work. With only two weeks left until the team’s stop date of Feb. 23, Riaziat is working on overdrive.

As a senior and key mechanical designer, Riaziat is a jack of all trades, working on all aspects of this year’s robot.

“I work on almost every component of the robot,” Riaziat said. “My main job is to make sure the robot’s base that can drive works, but I do design reviews for every component and work alongside others to create a comprehensive robot.”

The robot the team is creating is meant to play the 2016 FIRST Robotics competition called Stronghold. The game was announced early in the morning on Jan. 3.

Riaziat and 10 members of the team got up at 7 a.m. and went to San Jose State to watch a livestream of the announcement.

The challenge requires teams to design robots that can maneuver through a row of randomly selected defenses, such as a drawbridge and portcullis. Teams receive 10 points for scoring in a high goal, 5 points for scoring in a low goal, 5 points for traversing a defense, 5 points per robot that drives to the base of a weakened tower and 15 points for climbing a 6-foot high bar in the last 20 seconds of the match.

“This game is very unique compared to all the others,” said Riaziat, one of the team’s senior leaders. “It has a very different feel and is exciting to design around.”

Even so, because the game is so different from previous years, the team is falling behind in machining. 

“It is kind of nerve wracking to see that we near zero parts done and assembled,” Riaziat said. “We are hoping to go really hard the next week to make sure everything is up and running before our deadline so we have time to test.”

Spending most of his waking hours in the robotics room lately, Riaziat has dedicated his life for six weeks to the team. Sacrificing homework and test studying, Riaziat is more worried for the team’s ultimate two test: their first competition in Madera on March 13-14 and their second competition in San Jose State University on April 9-10.

“We are going to be ready to do really well in our first competition,” Riaziat said. “Our design is solid and with multiple talented juniors and seniors leading the team we are hoping for the best season in club history.”