Prior to the end of the school year, a few hours after the school day, the Los Alamitos High School Robotics Team (aka. the Meme Team) was unloading a U-Haul truck at Dooley Elementary School in North Long Beach. From the trailer, they pull out the pieces of their display: a 20 ft long carpet, two wooden towers around the height of a soccer goal post, and their main piece: a detailed 120-pound robot—the culmination of the team’s six weeks of engineering. Two of the team members work behind a control panel, preparing the robot for its performance later that afternoon.
As the sun retreats and the lights flicker on, the sparse campus slowly sparks to life. Parents and students flood through the breezeways. The Dooley Elementary Science Fair has begun! The purpose of this event is to showcase the magic of STEM to the Title 1 school and to inspire the young students to deepen their interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Directed by a team member, the robot runs across the carpet, extends to twice its original height, and places a frisbee-like disk onto the top level of the wooden tower. The elementary students circle around and look on with awe. Some ask questions about the robot. Across the breezeway, another team member gives a controller to a Dooley student who has been patiently waiting in line. The older student quickly teaches the younger student how to drive a smaller-sized robot, and then gives full freedom to the young student to play with it. To the interested parents and students, the Meme Team explains the team’s activities and the purpose of their robot.
The Meme Team is a group of primarily self-taught Los Alamitos High School students who have acquired skills in computer programming, electrical and mechanical engineering, and CNC machining. Each year the team designs and builds a new robot to meet specific and challenging criteria established by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a not-for-profit public charity founded in 1989 to motivate young people to pursue STEM education and careers.
Throughout the year, the team must work on creating a team brand, writing a professional business plan, networking through outreach events, and securing funding. Then in just six weeks, under the guidance of their mentors, headed by Tamas Vejsz, the Meme Team designs their robot from the ground up, machines and assembles the parts, test runs, troubleshoots, and reiterates steps in this process as necessary. Though the engineering process may be tiring at times, members return to the team year after year for the adrenaline rush of competition day, when their robot goes head-to-head in the FIRST Robotics Competition against teams from across the country, and sometimes the globe! Who knew science can be so much fun?
For further information on the Los Alamitos High School Robotics “Meme Team,” please contact losalfrc@gmail.com.