Dealing with Defeat

In 2014, Harker robotics placed 38th in their in the Central Valley tournament and 35th in the Silicon Valley regional tournament. The year before, they placed 31st and 42nd respectively.

“The team has not done quite so well as, say, the rest of Harker’s teams do in competitions like this,” Naman Jindal (11) said.

Within the past five years, the team’s highest competition rank was 10th place standing at the 2011 Silicon Valley tournament.

Team 1072’s last national championship bid occurred in 2005.  Alumnus Vijay Umapathi (‘06) was a member of the team during the winning year and became President of robotics the subsequent year.

“[That year] I think we picked the right strategy, and then we implemented well on pretty much everything. Strategy is a huge part of it,” Vijay said. The team did not qualify for the championship the following year.

“I think that was a mistake we made when I was president. We didn’t have a super-systematic way of thinking through strategy,” Vijay said.

Despite not advancing, the team has won other awards in competition. In 2012, robotics adviser Dr. Eric Nelson was a finalist for the Woodie Flowers mentor award.