With hard work and determination, the PHS Sonoran Storm Robotics Club is putting it all in, preparing for their upcoming competition. Going up against many other teams from around the state, the club has quite a challenge to face for the event. However, after a recent practice at Arcadia High School, in an event called the Duel in the Desert, the club showcased exceptional teamwork skill.

Vice President of Robotics Club, Milan Bhattacharya concluded, “we got some good practice in and it allowed us to fine tune our design.”

Robotics Club sponsor Andrea Strock added, “The Duel in the Desert competition went beautifully! We did so great and were actually able to help some other teams this year, which is great because we are so new.”

The design itself is based on the competitions annual theme, this year being Recycled Rush, in which the club had to build a robot that was capable of moving recycled bins and stacking them up. With that, the club is to be set up in a three team alliance, in which groups from different schools come together to form these alliances, in order to stack the most bins by their robots.

The competition changes every year, with the theme being announced on the very first Saturday in January. After this, the teams are given six weeks to construct their robot, conduct some practices, and enter the competition on  March 20th at Hamilton High School.

Based off of the past years, Strock mentioned, “It’s a very different competition than in the past because usually you’re bashing in to other robots.”

In anticipation for the upcoming event, the club members are feeling confident in the future turnout.

“I feel very prepared for the competition this is our third year as a club and we are doing far better than we ever have before,” Bhattacharya added.

Alongside the competition, the Sonoran Storm Robotics Club has additionally set a few goals to reach in the remainder of and into the next year.

Bhattacharya concluded, “Our future plans include expanding our fundraising in order to increase our budget, creating summer projects to work on and participating in more than just one first competition and gaining more members.”