Senior Guillermo Cote and sophomore Ethan Hundley are part of the robotics team, which is comprised of students from Kingwood High School and Kingwood Park High School. Cote, who joined the program just this year, is the robot’s only driver and the lead mechanical engineer. He talks about the experience and what the team expects as they head to the state competition. The competition runs from April 4-6 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
What are some things this group does throughout the year?
“So we actually did a competition before this called Best Robotics. A lot more basic, a lot more simple. It goes all the way from middle school to high school. We’ve also been focused on trying to show the robot to other schools. We’ve been talking to middle schools and elementary schools trying to just promote STEM related things more specifically robotics.”
How did you all qualify for state?
“So we had to do two district tournaments. And then you had to be top. I think it’s top 70 in the entire state to qualify for State.”
What is the criteria for those who want to get involved?
“I’d say there’s no criteria. There’s a spot for everyone there. A lot of people do just marketing and setting up and promoting. Also a lot of the leaders like me and other seniors are so open to teaching people. But of course, if you have programming, CAD experience, electrical experience, just even basic physics and math, is very useful.”
What is your favorite part about being in robotics?
“Just seeing the work you’ve done over the past few months come alive. Right when the robot worked for the first time, it was a very exciting moment. And when we scored for the first time everyone was clapping and cheering, so it just feels good to see something you’ve worked very hard on actually work.”
What are you most looking forward to?
“I’m looking forward to hopefully making it to World Champs, but also carrying this on through college, using the knowledge I’ve gained and then bettering it.”
What is your main goal?
“Just engineering experience. My goal is to be a mechanical engineer, and I would love to work on robots as an occupation. So this just feels like a precursor you know, a lead up to something that’s helping me get better.”
What is the biggest challenge?
“I’d say a lot of it is teamwork. And it can get very easy to just want to do everything yourself, we have to work together.”
How much does this mean to you since it’s your senior year?
“It means a lot. I was very disappointed that I couldn’t do it earlier in my high school career even though we didn’t have a team before. It just feels like something that could have helped me grow a lot more and put a lot more direction in my life.”
How many hours do you all put into this each week?
“Like double digits. It’s almost every day after school. When we were first starting to build a robot, I was one of like three people at the time, but it was every Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then every day after school until at least until 6 p.m.”
How did you first get involved?
“It was junior year and we were picking our classes. I was going to do AP Physics or Aeroscience, but then I saw robotics there, which I hadn’t seen before. I was intrigued because I liked the mechanical stuff, and I just talked to my physics teacher about it. He seemed very enthusiastic, and it seemed like it would be a great idea, and so I just went for it.”
How do you encourage others to get involved?
“Our plan mainly is to do less talking and more showing. So after competition season we want to bring the robot to the school and show students that are interested like, look, this is what you could do if you invest your time into it. Just get people hooked.”
