Politics & Government

City Council Recognizes Walnut High Robotics Team

The team finished eighth in a recent competition, their first time competing.

The Walnut High School's showing at a robotics competition earlier this month earned the team an eighth place finish out of 24 competing in the Galileo Division of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge regionals in Los Angeles.

The team of 19, dubbed the Aluminati, also finished second for the Rockwell Collins FTC Innovate Award.

The Walnut City Council on Wednesday night honored the students for their accomplishments and gave the star treatment to their robot Beyonce.

Find out what's happening in Diamond Bar-Walnutwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At a recent event the students hosted for sponsors in the community who helped fund the robot’s construction, team members shared their experiences making their machine and competing for the first time.

“It gave us an opportunity to put our knowledge of science and math to use,” said Angela Ko, a 16-year-old junior.  “It’s creative. You have to use your imagination.”

Find out what's happening in Diamond Bar-Walnutwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The teen said the most challenging part of building the robot was the financing.  They took apart their robot after a qualifying competition and built a better one, but towards the end of the project, they were running out of funds, Ko said.

The team came up with the name Beyonce for their final version of their robot because of the theme at this year’s regional competition, “Ring it Up.”

The object of the competition was for the robot to place round red and blue rings onto plastic piping.  Naming the robot after the pop music star was a nod to her song “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”

Parent Sharon Wu, whose daughters Mignon and Mindy Huang are both on the team, said the students had to get out into the community to seek donations, something that is a positive.

“They require the kids to do some community outreach,” Wu said.  “It also encourages kids to think outside of the box.”

Walnut resident, philanthropist, and businessman Gary Chow let the students use space at his Lemon Creek Drive office to prepare for the competition.

His son, a senior, is on the team.

Corey Chow, 17, said participating on the robotics team allowed the students to get hands on engineering experience that they don’t get in school.  The team members had to learn to be problem solvers, he said.

The team also learned to be “gracious professionals,” he said. 

Teams are expected to help each other and the one who does the best at that wins the competition’s Inspire Award, he said.

Walnut High finished in second place for the Inspire Award.

“It’s a competitive environment, but at the same time there is a tremendous amount of team work,” he said.  “It’s a real positive endeavor.”

The team set up demonstrations and games at the Family Festival in October and also visited CJ Morris Elementary School to work with younger students learning about science and math.

During the sponsors’ appreciation event, Walnut Mayor Mary Su stopped by and took her turn at the robot’s controls.

Su said at that time she planned to have to students come to the council meeting and talk about their experiences with robotics.

“It’s important that they educate the community,” she said.  “I think they learn by the process of doing the work and getting everybody involved.”

Walnut High Aluminati Robotics team members include:

Alan Chen Andrew Chuen Angela Ko Bobbie Chen Brian Sonner Corey Chow Danny Kim David Cao Frank Lin James Li Kelly Seto Louisa Lee Mary Zhang Matthew Diep Mignon Huang Mindy Huang Paul Sonner Ted Zhu Wyatt Ramirez

 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here