SLOBotics accomplished a lot at their competition last October! Photo collage courtesy of freshman reporter Vyolet Burrus.

  San Luis Obispo High School’s Robotics Club, better known as SLOBotics, is working on big things this year. Back in October the team had a competition in Bakersfield; their three teams competed against eleven other schools, and they all made it to quarterfinals, with one team winning the entire tournament. 

  “[Our teams] communicate very well, they help each other, and they work together very well,” said freshman and SLOBotics member Fernando Rios. 

  Because they won the competition, they qualified for the state championship in March. The club also has a competition scheduled for January 21 at Cal Poly, and they’ve recently added a signature event which they’ll be competing in from February 17 to the 19, early next year. 

  “I am pretty confident we can win our next local competition. The state competition and signature event will be a lot more challenging though, and they include teams from a much wider region,” said senior and SLOBotics president Joseph Lipper.

  Winning either of these events could qualify the team for the world championships in May where several hundred teams, selected from thousands across the world, will be competing. Last year SLOBotics made it to the world championships, and they have their sights set high this year.

  “We’re going to try super hard to qualify for world championships and we’re going after some sponsorships [to get] more money for the club in general,” said sophomore and SLOBotics member Chris Kaml.

  The team originally had a fundraiser and competition scheduled for October 8, but due to limited teams and sign ups, it was canceled. Luckily for SLOBotics, two more fundraisers have been scheduled to fund the club, and more will surely be added later this year. The fundraisers are on December 17, and January 28, and the club will be competing at elementary and middle school (VEX IQ) level competitions to raise money for the team. 

  “I think we are doing very well. Everyone is making excellent progress and [we’re] excited to compete at our next competition in January. We are iterating through several different robot designs and are getting students excited about robotics. Our plan is mainly just to have a great time building robots. Winning is nice, but in the end it’s the experiences you had and the friends you made that really matter,” said Lipper.