Sage Hill’s robotics club, Lightning Robotics, consistently strives towards excellence in competitions, foreshadowing a great future for the team. Their most recent competition, the LA regional championship, included forty-eight teams from the Los Angeles region.

“At the regional, we won all five of our ranking matches, positioning us an alliance captain for the finals,” explained president of the club Dustin Jamner. However, a technical issue caused them to lose control of their robot, resulting in the loss of the quarterfinals.

“We competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge, a competition in which teams must design and build robots to solve yearly challenges in local, regional and international events,” continues Jamner.

In competitions, teams gain points by using their robots to drop balls into tubes. The tubes can then be moved into a specified area for additional points.

Lightning Robotics calls their robot “Dingus,” with no explanation behind the name. No instructions are given for the construction of the robot except basic code, which allows the robot to run.

“Our team relies on a great variety of technologies to construct our robot, from CAD and 3D printing to sheet metal and power tools; we make extensive use of the resources at our disposal,” Jamner describes, explaining the effort necessary to construct the robot.

Their hard work has rewarded them. The team has received an Inspire Award, an honor higher than winning the event itself, as well as Inspire second place. They also were in a winning alliance in two competitions.

“We are looking forward to continuing and hope to expand the club,” commented sophomore Theo Evers who will lead the team next year after Jamner graduates.