As technology grows, robots gain a higher prevalence in American society. At City High, one of the newest clubs, Raw Bacon Robotics, focuses on creating and programming robots. The team has won many awards for their work, including the second place Inspire award and the Rockwell-Collins Innovate Award.

At competitions, the team uses the robot they have built to play a game. The game for the past season was called Cascade Effect and requires the robots to get a ball in the center goal with the assistance of the team’s drivers.

“It’s kind of the same idea as a sport, because it’s very much a team effort,” Bekah Tate ‘18 explained. “Without the entire team doing its part, we wouldn’t be able to do everything we’ve done.”

The team has gone to state, super regionals, and was one of only two first-year teams to  compete at nationals. Team member Charles Mascardo ‘17 described what it felt like when their robot “The Bacon-Bot” won a match.

“It’s like a huge relief, because you spent so much time getting prepared and scouting all of the other teams,” he said. “So much anxiety is built up, and at the end it’s just relief washing over you.”

Raw Bacon, which was named after Mr. Bacon and the raw power their robot uses, allows students to bond over one common interest – engineering. Most of the members are in Project Lead the Way classes, and the coach is engineering teacher Victoria Pederson. For most team members, engineering isn’t just a club for high school, but in fact a future career.

“I really would like a career in the engineering field. I’m also interested in the arts so I maybe want to combine the two in some way,” Tate said. “I’m not sure how it’s going to work out yet, but I would not mind going into mechanical engineering, biotechnical, something like that. I’m not sure.”

Robots are not the only thing made at robotics club – for some, it’s a place to make friends.

“We’ve definitely bonded as a team – I can’t say we’re always cohesive, because we’re human, we’re not.” Tate said. “But we’re all friends now, and we still joke with each other even in the off season.”

As with every group, Raw Bacon had its highs and lows. Mascardo’s favorite memory from the team was going to the first competition.

“The best moment I’ve had on team Raw Bacon would be going to the first competition, because there was so much going on,” he said. “It was exciting. There was a drone flying around with a camera and it was just really cool.”

Since the team began building their robot in September, members have learned valuable skills that apply inside and outside of the world of engineering.

“Robotics helped me learn how to work on a team, specifically in small teams,” Mascardo said. “There are just little quirks and little pieces of data that you pick up that you can just use along the way.”