I started designing robots in the 5th grade. Robot Revolution, a local robotics education company, was my introduction. I was 11 years old.

Lessons were taught with VEX IQ robots. All plastic, pull apart by hand, but these were real robots. Early lessons were programming-focused, using Scratch-like blocks to command various tasks. The class would learn how to program joysticks for driving.

Then I started learning to build robots. We'd make claws and grabbers to solve various puzzles. Move a cube over a fence. Drive through a maze with a ball.

I learned how motors worked. Not out of a textbook, with hands-on experience. When my robot turned instead of driving straight, I learned to reverse one side with code. Sometimes I'd get dud motors, and since I hadn't tested them before assembly, the robot had to come apart.

In 6th grade, I started competing in VEX Robotics. This wasn't VEX IQ anymore; these were 18x18x18" metal robots that could expand to be larger when the match began. Here's the world championship finale from the 2014-15 game, "Skyrise". I wanted to be on that floor, but we barely squeaked into states as one of the youngest competing teams.

The rules were the same for every team. All robots needed to be built from VEX COTS parts, although components like C-channel needed to be cut to size. Everybody had the same motor limits, making motor allocation critical. This meant the competition wasn't about sponsorships; it was about engineering.

I don't want to bore you with the entire history of VEX, so let's skip to my senior year of high school. This was my last year of robotics, and VEX had become an obsession. My team had 3 members. A builder, programmer, and driver. In previous years, I could only work on my robot twice a week, for a total of 6 hours. But this year was different.

In 2018, I started using CAD. It was frustrating at first, but I learned a lot from YouTube and got my clicks in. By the 2019-20 season, I was a proficient user. I could spend as much time designing the robot as I liked.

My designs improved dramatically, and my 6-hour design/build limit turned into 6 hours with what seemed like LEGO instructions, skyrocketing productivity. At one point, our robot was stolen. The team rebuilt it from scratch in 24 hours, with paint.

The average team could stack 6 cubes slowly and carefully. We could do 11 with a single button press (macro) in 5 seconds. Our drive motors were designed to be removed in seconds, and we cycled new ones in between matches for maximum performance without overheating. Our robot was equipped with IMU's, potentiometers, light sensors, and excellent code. We used the sensors to feed PID loops, validate motor steps, and perform S-curve path finding that automatically corrected when pushed off coarse.

Unfortunately, the world championship was shut down for COVID, but the robot performed very well at states. 

Helping pass knowledge down to the next generation of engineers has always been a passion of mine, so working for Robot Revolution to teach mechanical concepts was a perfect fit.

I taught design for assembly and repair, structural integrity, VEX best practices, holistic design, lifts, linkages, and gearboxes.

I also worked with Robot Revolution to put together their first CAD offering, teaching Fusion 360 fundamentals to high school students. When COVID closed us down in person, I was able to continue teaching CAD over Zoom.