Rochester’s robotics and drone teams have overcome adversity with the support of their community, both finishing in second place during a national competition after their equipment was stolen earlier in the year.
While Rochester High School’s (RHS) SkillsUSA robotics and drone teams may have dominated at the state-level competition in early April — sweeping the podium and earning a trip to nationals — the celebration was short-lived when it was discovered the truck they traveled to the competition in was stolen the next morning.
The truck wasn’t the only thing missing, though. It was carrying an estimated $10,000 worth of robotics equipment, drones and notebooks with diagrams. The notebooks alone contained more than six months worth of documented work.
Even the team’s championship-winning robot, Vladimir, was gone. While the truck was recovered, Vladimir and the rest of the equipment still haven’t been found and probably never will be, RHS robotics program advisor Paul Kuss said.
Despite the loss, Kuss said communities provided overwhelming support through donations, allowing the teams to quickly rebuild and be able to attend the SkillsUSA 2023 National Leadership & Skills Conference, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 19 to June 24.
Both the robotics and drone teams ended up placing second in their respective competitions at the national level. This was the first time the drone team competed at nationals.
“We had just short of $20,000 come in, and that was definitely enough to replace our missing equipment and covered all the fundraising we would have needed in order to pay for plane tickets, hotels and food to go to nationals. So that was huge,” Kuss said. “We were able to focus on just rebuilding and practicing.”
While the new drone remains unnamed, Vladimir’s successor, Dazen, has carried on in the stolen robot’s urban search-and-rescue ways. Vladimir was originally modeled after bomb-disposal robots.
Team members junior Mason Young, senior Gaiden Wood, sophomore Zach Hubbard and senior Daniel Dugas are already preparing for next year’s competitions and making improvements to their work.
“We want to try to make it lighter in some way, but mostly we’re working on troubleshooting practice and notebook work improvement,” Young said.
They were thankful for the community’s response to their situation with donations and felt they also grew closer as a team through the experience.
“It’s nice to see that even with the worst-case scenario happening, robotics all came together and helped each other out to get top two in nationals,” Wood said.
The drone team has a lot of work ahead too, Hubbard said, as drones require a lot of testing, maintenance and autonomous flight path setting, all areas judged in SkillsUSA competition.
“We have to study a lot more,” added Hubbard.
Now that they’ve made nationals once, they know what to expect at the competition and hope to try to win the gold next year.
“With these competitions, you always learn ways in which you’ve lost points or you struggled at, so now you can put focus and energy on those items and hopefully do better in the next competition,” Kuss said.
The teams have some fundraisers coming up for next year's competitions including an Applebee's breakfast fundraiser in February featuring $10 tickets for a meal with two pancakes, two eggs, two sausage links, two bacon strips and a choice of juices or coffee, according to the students, though dates have yet to be finalized.
For more information, contact the RHS office at 360-273-5534.
SkillsUSA is a nationwide nonprofit organization comprised of a partnership of students, teachers and industry professionals working to train a skilled workforce. It serves middle school, high school and college students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.
To learn more about SkillsUSA, visit https://www.skillsusa.org/.
