A group of local students recently won the California VEX Robotics Championship at Damien High School in La Verne, California on April 16. This victory has earned them a place at the VEX Robotics World Championship May 6-14 at the Kay Baily Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.
The team 652A Robomonkeys is composed of local Chula Vista students. Andrew Espinola, 17, a junior from Olympian High School, Rylan Lezarda, 16, a junior from Mater Dei Catholic High School, Kylie Hunter, 17, a junior from Otay Ranch High School, and Yuchon Jung from Olympian High School.
Rylan Lezarda is the programmer for Robomonkeys. Andrew Espinola is the lead engineer and designer for the team. Kylie Hunter is the team’s manager. Yuchon Jung is a builder and team scout, meaning he scouts opponents and teammates so the team can strategize how they play against the other teams by knowing their own team’s capabilities.
“We started this team during our freshman years. This was coming off middle school years when my cousin Andrew met Kylie and competed in middle school. We knew we wanted to make a team in high school, but the problem was that we all came from different schools. So, we decided to form an independent team,” said Rylan.
Andrew said his job is to design and build the robot, using a computer program called TAD, then using a 3D model to construct the robot, that then needs to be programed and tested to be used in competitions.
Rylan said this is not the first time going to the world championships.
“Hundreds of teams from around the world are competing in this competition. To get there, you have to qualify through previous competitions, such as regional championship and signature events. We qualified through the regional championship, which we won, and also through a signature event,” he said.
Andrew said it was more difficult in the beginning because they had to work on getting funding for the competition and to buy all the parts they needed to construct a robot.
“Now that it is our third year in competition we have a system on how we communicate, spread out the work, and I feel that things have gone a lot smoother now that we have that experience,” he said.
Rylan said they get funding from sponsorships and hold fundraisers to buy parts and pay for competition entry fees.
Andrew said the way VEX Robotics works is that every year, the company releases a new game.
“It is not quite like battle bots where your main objective is to destroy the other robot,” he said. “Rather, it is different objectives. For example, this year, there is a bunch of little rings on the field, and you have to score them on various poles. It is a two-team format with two teams on one side and two teams on the other side over the course of two minutes. Whoever scores the most points in those two minutes wins the match,” he said.
Andrew said there are two portions to the game, the driver period, and an autonomous period,” he said.
Rylan said during the autonomous period, the robot does not have a driver, so it must move on its own.
“What I do, is program three planned routes for the robot to take during this period. The incentive in this period is if you are able score more points during this period, you get bonus points and you have an advantage going into the driver period,” he said.
Rylan said building a robot is difficult, but with experience it does become easier.
“It is a very long process sometimes to figure out what we do for certain games or figuring out the most efficient way of doing things. But as we have grown through the years, we have gotten a lot better,” he said.
Andrew said there are many types of robotics programs around.
“So, kids around the world can join robotic teams even if they do not have a VEX robotic team at their school,” he said.
Kylie said robotics is not just about learning STEM skills.
“It teaches us a lot of community and communications skills,” she said. “As we enjoy robotics, we have contact with a lot of people from all around the world and become friends.”
Rylan said the skills learned in robotics provide an impact for the rest of their lives.
“Not only are we learning about STEM aspects and various STEM skills as we set up for our future careers, but we are also learning a lot of valuable life lessons like perseverance, and grit through hardship by going through competitions. Even during building, trial, and testing. I think it is something a lot of students can benefit from,” he said.
