Team 8, Paly’s robotics team, qualified for FIRST World Champion by winning the Impact Award at the Ventura County Regional on March 10.
According to senior and co-captain Susanna Aufrichtig, the Impact Award is one of the most prestigious awards presented to a robotics team.
“The selection criteria for it is a team that embodies the core values (of FIRST),” Aufrichtig said. “Factors that come into consideration are our outreach, impact to community, team structure, team environment and legacy.”
Team 8’s Impact Presenter and senior Sophia Kim said that Team 8 stood out with its impact on the Palo Alto community based on its work with elementary and middle school students..
“(FIRST LEGO League ) teams are for elementary, and we’ve formed 10 FLL teams,” Kim said. “Many families want their kids to be involved in STEM or engineering at a young age, but they might lack the time or technical expertise to form the team. So we offer mentorship as our contribution.”
Team 8 also created Sighwalk, an AI navigation device for the blind and engaged with students in the summer, Impact Presenter Sarabeth Huang said.
“We also do a summer camp, which is one of the main ways we get outreach to our community,” Huang said. “But it’s also a way to get kids exposed to robotics regardless because a lot of kids end up wanting to join.”
Sophomore Impact Presenter Brooke Chandler said Team 8 has also engaged in pro-bono work.
“(We have) our Lego robotics program for those that can’t afford (our summer program),” Chandler said.
Aufrichtig said the program impacts kids from underserved communities by introducing them to robotics.
Huang said while Team 8 has had a track record of community involvement, they won the Impact Award this year because of how they wrote the application.
“We were focused a lot on the numbers and statistics, and I think that probably this year, we decided that we wanted to really focus more on narrative,” Huang said. “Although it wasn’t as catchy in terms of statistics, it was more appealing emotionally (and) easier for the judges to digest.
Aufrichtig said the team is excited about Worlds, building off previous qualifications in 2020 and 2017.
“Worlds like this, where teams from all over the world are coming to this one place for FIRST,” Aufrichtig said, “it’s really interesting to see what other teams are doing with their robots. ”
