![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Harker Robotics competed at the 2024 Sacramento Regional hosted at Pleasant Grove High School from March 13 to 16, making a comeback run to the finals alongside alliance partners Citrus Circuits, Berkelium and Rambots before losing to the eventual winners The Cheesy Poofs, Quixilver and Iron Patriots.
The competition brought together 38 teams from across the world, with participants representing both China and Taiwan in addition to America. In this year’s challenge, dubbed “Crescendo,” each alliance of three teams was tasked with shooting rings into a speaker element to score, slotting them into an amplifier to speed up scoring and mounting a metal chain at the end in order to gain extra points.
In the first two days of the event, Harker Robotics faced mechanical and software faults that led to the team falling to last place in the qualifying rounds. A fortunate selection by the second-seeded alliance combined with Harker Robotics’ overhaul of the robot’s intake and indexer resulted in a stronger showing in playoffs and a second-place finish overall.
Computer science department chair and robotics team administrator Dr. Eric Nelson managed bookings and payments for the Sacramento Regional. He was surprised by the sudden resurgence of Team 1072 after their shaky start.
“The team came in knowing that there were some hardware issues, but they passed the bench level testing that they’ve been doing in some of the early field testing,” Dr. Nelson said. “By the end of the qualification rounds, which occur all day Friday and Saturday up until noon, we were tied for dead last. Saturday evening, we walked away as an award-winning finalist.”
The alliance, composed of Citrus Circuits from Davis Senior High School, Berkeley High School’s Berkelium, Harker Robotics and backup team Rambots from California Crosspoint Academy, cruised through the quarterfinals and semifinals of the event without a single loss. However, the first-seeded alliance ultimately secured victory by taking down Harker’s alliance 120-114 and 114-80 in consecutive matches.
Software lead Eddie Zhang (10) praised the operation subteams of Harker Robotics for their excellent scouting and networking with other teams, especially Citrus Circuits.
“Our outreach and pitches to other teams greatly improved our standing because we were unable to reach our full potential during the qualification matches,” Eddie said. “This meant that we had a higher chance of being picked because we explained what we could actually do with our robot, which led to Team 1678 considering us as a second pick robot. Not only were we able to score, we were also able to play effective defense against other teams.”
The judges additionally recognized Team 1072’s outreach initiatives, awarding them the Gracious Professionalism award in honor of their exemplary adherence to the FIRST core values of discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and fun through actions both on and off the playing field.
Harker Robotics also worked to prepare for the next competition, which took place at Seaside High School in Monterey from March 27 to 30. Operations President Tiffany Gu (10) was excited to see the robot’s new performance with fixes to its systems.
“We have spent a lot of time revamping our robot, and I am anticipating that our robot will do much better,” Tiffany said. “We have upgraded our autonomous program and implemented various corrections to fix our mistakes from the Sacramento Regional like ensuring the hand off from our intake to indexer to shooter is flawless.”
