Robots may not be able to have snack parties, but the members of AdamasBots, the robotics team in Humble ISD, can and do before each meeting.

Unfortunately the team could not attend the first competition of the season due to flooding. They used that time to train the new members, so they would be prepared for regionals, which is in March.

“We decided not to go, because of the inclement weather. It was flooding and students’ safety was more important,” said Daryl Palmer, mentor of the team.

For the next competition though, they  will be larger by about ten people, since AdamasBots joined forces with another team.

They recently combined with Summer Creek’s robotics team, making the approximately 15 members grow to about 25. They chose  to do this, because of Summer Creek’s need of programmers and AdamasBots’ need for help in other areas. November 17, 2015 was the first meeting at which the two teams were together.

“Their strength is strong in marketing. They’re strong in actually putting stuff together. It’s more like a technical kind, and I have an engineering background, so we all decided like hey, why don’t we just join all the teams together. We kind of share our ideas, and that’s how it just happened so quickly. We’re here,” said Roger Vazquez, sponsor for/of Summer Creek’s team.

Building robots is not all the team will do. They will raise funds, advertise, and work on social skills, such as formal interactions.

“A lot of business skills, a lot of public speaking because they have to present to potential donors to get them to, you know, basically donate to the team,” Palmer said.

AdamasBots is in the process of creating some merchandise to make the team more known to the Humble ISD community. They are getting wristbands, along with some other items that are still being decided on including, tumblers, pens, buttons, and lanyards. They will also give out little things at parades.

On the robotics side of things, the team builds and competes robots against other schools in different competitions. These competitions are set up as obstacle courses that the robots have to maneuver to stack objects. Each competition has a different setup that the robots are built for. They have to make sure their bots are sturdy, built in accordance to the competition’s requirements and guidelines, and can perform the given task.

On January 9th, they will throw a kickoff party and receive the information for the new competition.

Knowledge about proper safety is important when building and working in this type of environment. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is a federal organization that teaches proper workplace safety.

Having an OSHA card, earned by taking the ten hour class which costs $25, gives you a better chance of getting a job in a related field. There is also the option of taking the five hour class offered, costing $12, which earns you a certificate instead of a card. If you are enrolled in a CTE course, you can take either one for free. Whether you do the ten hour class or not, OSHA is a really good thing to do if you plan on going into a related field or if you are just doing something of the kind, such as AdamasBots, currently.

The team is made up of different kinds of people that work together to make functioning robots.

“Different backgrounds, different disciplines. We got computer folks. We’ve got engineering, pre-engineering folks. We’ve got folks that are in shop,” Palmer said, “folks that are, as we like to say, mostly geeks.”

The robots are a big part as well. You build them, and the result of your efforts is shown off to teams from all around the state, country, and even world in different competitions.

“At nationals, we had teams, six at least. Six teams from Israel. We had teams from all over the world. South America, Mexico, Canada, France, I believe we had one team from Japan, one team from Thailand. It’s a worldwide thing, so now they don’t call it nationals anymore,” Palmer said.

The joint effort can create new friendships as well as robots. President junior Brooke Chinen has gained many friends since joining the team last year.

“I wanted to be a biomedical engineer, so in order to kind of gain experience on that, I decided to join the robotics club. That, and it’s really fun, so I like it,” said Chinen.

She started out with no experience in robotics. Chinen enjoys being in the robotics team, because it’s a group of people with similar interests in relating fields and topics. She has gotten more confident since joining the team.

One of the new members this year, senior Stefanie Fernandez wanted to try something new, so she decided to join the robotics team when her friend asked her to come. Anyone in Humble ISD is welcome. Adults, as well as students. In AdamasBots, like in most teams, the members learn together and enjoy what they are doing.

“My joy is to watch them grow. To watch them, you know, become a team, and to get excited about engineering and science,” said Palmer, ”we need a lot of good engineers in the world, so.”
If anyone in KPark is interested in joining, contact M(r)s. Goerner in room 2009E, or just come to the meetings, which are held every Tuesday from 3:30 to 5:30 pm at the CATE Center, 9155 Will Clayton Parkway, Humble, TX 77338.