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How did your team select its members? Shane and Gabe met when they expressed a mutual interest in competitive robotics during an engineering class. When they discovered that no option was available at their school, they pursued the idea of starting their own team. What is the most important component of your robot construction and why? Our design process and documentation has been key to aiding our robot construction. By keeping our past thoughts and actions organized, we are always sure to make significant improvement over iteration throughout the creation of our robots. Our focus is to experiment before consolidating a final design at the end of the season, and by having thorough information on all of our attempted designs we are able to fully polish a final robot. What do your team members feel is the most important lesson they have learned as a result of participating in the VEX Robotics Competition? Sometimes you have to go out on a limb. Since the decision to start our team, we have learned that you can't be afraid to be bold, wether it be trying a crazy design or making a difference in your community. What obstacles did your team have to overcome while designing and building your robot? When we started as a team we had a huge lack of resources and funding. Through hard work we were able to acquire what we needed to be competitive. On our current design, our biggest obstacle was balancing speed and reliability on our drive with the power needed for a lift to hang. We have instead worked on a pneumatic based mechanism to low hang without needing extra power on the lift while getting most of the hanging points quickly and efficiently. Who are the sponsors who made it possible for your team to participate in the VEX Robotics Competition? Our parents have been very supportive by helping us get to competitions. Our sponsors have been hugely helpful to giving us the resources we need to compete: Technopower Engines M&X Motors Macrolynk Kelly Home Group Target Roofing FireHouse Subs Cedar Park Jewelry Hudson's Jewelers Why does your team think it is important that all students have access to robotics programs? Robotics programs give students an opportunity to expand the horizons of their future, even if that future does not include STEM related careers. Any student can take at least one valuable lesson from a robotics program and apply it to any career path that they so choose. This is where the value of robotics is found. In the fact that it not only prepares you exceptionally well for STEM fields, but also for life in general. Virtues such as initiative, teamwork, responsibility, sportsmanship, and many others can be gained by participating in robotics.