It was a stellar year for the 31 students from Olympia, Capital and Avanti high schools who make up the Olympia Robotics Federation! The 2023-2024 team had a banner year, winning the Impact Award from FIRST Robotics, competing at the World Championships in Houston, Texas, and heading to Egypt to teach other high schoolers about robotics!
“The Impact Award is the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC),” shares Sambhavi Bihari, Olympia Robotics Federation captain. “The award recognizes a team that reflects sustained excellence and impact within the FIRST community, in its own community and beyond. The award preserves the vision that FRC is about more than just building robots, and it’s also about building the people who will change the world.”
To be considered for an Impact Award, the team has to submit and present a number of materials, highlighting the strong impact the team has created in their community, explains Sambhavi, including a 10,000-character essay, short-answer questions and a presentation. “Hours upon hours of work go into perfecting the submission materials, not to mention all the hours that go into the outreach activities that all team members partake in, but it’s all worth it when you hear your team’s name being called as the winner!” Sambhavi says.
FIRST Robotics is a nonprofit organization that has team-based robotics programs pre-kindergarten through high school. They put on the World Championship competition that Olympia Robotics Federation competed at this past year.
Thurston County High School Robotics Team Makes it to World Championship
Out of approximately 3,500 students from 28 countries, 600 made it to Houston, Texas, to compete in the FIRST World Championship. The competition allowed Olympia-area high school students to meet others from around the world. “Due to the collaborative nature of FRC Competitions, ORF members are able to connect with students from all over the world, all of whom share our common love for robots,” shares Sambhavi.
The team met five days a week for eight weeks to create their robot. They design, CAD, manufacture and program the robot. The skills they learn are ones they can use as they pursue careers in technology, engineering, design and more. This year’s robot was named the USS Protostar.
They competed at two regional competitions to secure a spot at the Pacific Northwest Championship, being in the Top 50 out of 130 area teams. A third-place finish at the Pacific Northwest Championship meant they were headed to the World Championships held in June 2024.
“The World Championships is split into 8 divisions and ORF competed in the Johnson Division hoping to succeed to make it to the finals where the best of the best from each division compete,” shares Sambhavi. “At Worlds, the USS Protostar jumped to second place in the Johnson Division on Day 1 with a world record at the time, but due to unlucky alliances and various issues throughout the competition, we ended at 24th place in our division. However, we won the Imagery Award in our division for our cohesive and unique team theme and aesthetic engineering of our robot. The 2024 season was one of the strongest in ORF’s 12-year history.”
Olympia Robotics Federation Hosts Camps in Egypt
Aside from competing, the Olympia Robotics Federation traveled to Egypt in August 2024 to teach their Tech Track robotics camp to students there. Seventeen members of the team participated in the camp located at the Nutty Scientists Academy in Cairo, Egypt. “Nutty Scientists and STEM Zone are the two Egyptian organizations that helped make this camp possible by working with us!” shares Sambhavi.
The camp lasted eight days, with 100 kids participating. Four different sections were taught: FLL (LEGO Robots), FTC (metal robots), Arduino and Game Design. FLL and FTC are different categories in FIRST competitions. Since the Olympia Robotics Federation is part of the FRC level – the highest level – Sambhavi said they decided to teach the kids about the other levels as well.
“Each section was about a different topic in STEAM and about four students led each section of the camp,” says Sambhavi. “We wanted to expose the kids to various topics in STEAM while also accommodating different age ranges and skill levels. The Arduino camp taught students how to code a lunar lander to read inputs from their custom-made control panel so that they could land successfully in a two-minute match. The Game Design camp taught students how to use the Pico-8 education platform to program and design their own custom games.”
“Going into Cairo, I was unsure if there would be a lot of equal gender representation,” shares one team member. “But, when I got there I found a wonderful group of girls who were so enthusiastic about STEM. It was such a joy to teach them and empower them to bridge the gender gap in STEM fields.”
“Robotics has been such a huge part of my life and it was amazing to give that same opportunity to these students and inspire them,” shares Sebastian Hardjoko.
How to Get Involved in Olympia Robotics
If your child is in high school in the Olympia School District, they are welcome to join the team! Competition season starts January 4, 2025. Reach out to orf4450@gmail.com or message them on the Olympic Robotics Federation’s Instagram.
The team fundraises through various events including their summer camps; a crepe stand at the Capital Lakefair; a breakfast fundraiser at Applebee’s; and a movie fundraiser at the Capital Theater on February 9, with a special showing of “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” You can purchase tickets online.
Monetary donations can be made at any time on the Olympia Robotics Federation website. Donations of supplies are always welcome, including things like lumber and plywood sheets.
