Wednesday, July 3, was the sole day Robotics Summer Camp met during its fifth week. Much of what students did that day was either a continuation of projects from the fourth week of summer camp or a preparation for the next day, July 4.
Mechanical engineering and CAD (Computer Aided Design) were some of the fields that resumed work from the previous week. Both fields worked on prototyping and designing models to create a new mechanism. This is to fuse two separate mechanisms that were on last year’s robot, Galac[Ti]c, in order to have a dual-purpose structure.
Programming and Electrical engineering, on the other hand, performed jobs preparing for the Fourth of July Parade that was to take place the next day. Throughout the parade, Titanium Robotics took one of its robots, [Ti]rone, that works as a T-shirt cannon, along the parade route to launch souvenirs to the parade’s attendees.
In preparation for this event, Electrical engineering worked skillfully and expeditiously to repair the compressor on [Ti]rone. Programming aided in the mending of the team’s T-shirt cannon as well. Programming worked on writing and editing code for the T-shirt cannon to operate. On Thursday, July 4, the parade began at approximately 5 p.m. and lasted around an hour, all the time the Titanium Robotics team shot T-shirts for people to catch, with the hope of creating an additional opportunity for attendees to have fun and enjoy themselves in accompaniment to the rest of the day’s festivities. Before the parade began, four Titanium Robotics team members, Business President Madeleine Haddad, Former Business President Kimia Hassibi, Anais Lopez, and Amanda Lopez, spoke with congresswoman Judy Chu. Ms. Chu is the current representative for California’s twenty-seventh congressional district, which encompasses San Marino. These students described to Ms. Chu their love for robotics and the countless opportunities being on the Titanium Robotics team provides them. On the team, students have access to knowledge and experiences rarely found in other places. Such knowledge and endeavors, though hard to come by, are uniquely supplied by this student-run team. Year after year, new students are exposed to how Titanium Robotics runs, which happens to be the same way an independent company would. Through joining Titanium Robotics, team members discover the true depths of business, finance, mechanical and electrical engineering, programming, CAD (Computer Aided Design), teamwork, and camaraderie, all things kids only a few decades ago did not have access to as easily.
While discussing this year’s parade and what our team does, United States Assemblywoman Judy Chu exclaimed, “It’s so wonderful for you to have this great team… You were shooting all those T-shirts out of the cannon! That was amazing!” Titanium Robotics is a team consisting of over 100 students, mainly from San Marino High School, who come together with a common interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Students learn from professional engineers and mentors to build and compete in the annual FIRST Robotics Challenge with a robot of their own design. Programming, electrical work, computer-aided design, and business management are all run by student representatives, making the entire organization student-led from start to finish.
