The Robotics team, hosted by Jason Smith, CAD teacher, will be going to competition in a matter of months.

They won’t know what tasks their robot will have to perform until Jan. 9, but for the time being, they have been given the theme “Stronghold” by FIRST Robotics League. The season officially started in October, but their build season starts on Jan. 9.

A sneak peek of the robot, named “Teddy Roosevelt,” will be held on Feb. 13. The team leaders in charge of building and programming the robot include Ryan Mersmann, Mitchell Slavik, Nathan Helgeson, seniors; Jayden Nuber, junior; Noah Bartlett and Taylor Noonan, sophomores. These teams include electronics, building, programming and many more. The number of people on the teams that make up the complete team totals to well above 40.

“The team is currently looking for more programmers, though,” Smith said.

Joining the team requires no prerequisite classes, so almost anyone can join. However, the work can be extremely challenging.

“It takes a lot to design and test [the robot],” Smith said. “The design dictates the programming.”

The students love being on the team. They think that Smith is strict, but very fun, which helps the team’s productivity.

“I love it; it’s a lot of fun,” Ian Johnson, sophomore, said. “I’m an electrical engineer on the electronics team – basically, I wire things.”

The competition begins on March 9 and runs through March 11. The team learns a lot from each competition they attend and have come to find that the robot that wins can usually complete all challenges presented in the competition. Thus, their robot must be able to do everything assigned to it flawlessly.

Sponsors for the team include Garmin, Henderson Engineers, and Script Pro as well as a grant from the Olathe School District.