By Alex Gilbert
With the semester coming to an end, it’s time to start looking forwards to what great clubs are on campus to join next school year. The start of a new academic year is the best time to join a new club because clubs are actively searching for new members, with everyone ready to start fresh and get involved. The FIRST Robotics team is an excellent choice because it focuses on both volunteering efforts and engineering. The club is prepared to make it a year of success, with plans to start robotics programs at local high schools and educate and inspire the next generation of engineers.
The FIRST Robotics club at Western New England University is a division of the organization FIRST which focuses on inspiring young people to be interested in robotics. From the official FIRST website, their mission is to “inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.” The organization runs programs that host competitions, educate youth on robotics, and promote skills in engineering, technology, and leadership.
The recently elected president of the FIRST Robotics team is Jonathan Morris, a student in the class of 2024. Morris has been actively involved in the FIRST Robotics team for multiple years and will be in charge of the club next semester. Morris already has big plans for the club, including an outreach program and continuing to build awesome robot kits.
Morris told The Westerner that “next year, we will be starting the outreach program at a local high school.” His goal is to establish a consistent club program for the students and provide them with decent knowledge of robotics.
The local high schools that are in strong consideration to become a part of this outreach program are Springfield Central and East Long Meadow. Morris explains that due to a lack of funding and trained faculty, “the Springfield area historically doesn’t have a lot of robotics programs.” He is passionate about giving these high schoolers a new and exciting experience in the field of engineering, who usually wouldn’t have access to it.
It’s important for all high schoolers to have the opportunity to test out and pursue their interests in order to help guide them on their career choices. A student who enjoys their high school robotics club program could decide to work towards a major in the engineering field. The FIRST program at Western New England University is working hard to make it all possible in the fall 2023 semester.
Morris plans to begin establishing the outreach program soon at the start of the school year. He explains that “in the fall, we would like to have the demonstration to the high school and show our capabilities.” He hopes to generate positive interest from the high school community by showing off the robot’s impressive functions, moving around, and accomplishing tasks. Morris plans for this to “be a few weeks into the semester after hopefully getting new students involved.”
Morris explains that “for the robotics club, we are currently working on the FTC, which is a smaller competition than FRC.” The goal is to put together a working robot from the kit in order to share expertise with the local high schoolers. FTC stands for the FIRST Tech Challenge, while FRC stands for the FIRST Robotics Competition. The current robot build has been the focus of the club for the past school year in order to gain experience before starting the outreach program.
The FIRST Robotics club helped host the New England district’s FRC competition over spring break from March 16th-18th. Morris volunteered at the event and explained that “the FIRST Robotics club in conjunction with New England’s FIRST organization organized a first level FRC Competition.” The event was highly successful, with roughly 900-1200 people attending, including faculty and students of 36 high school robotics teams.
