Who We Are
Welcome to Rockin’ Robos — the FTC robotics team composed of students who share the interests of robotics, engineering, programming, creating, and collaboration. Deeksha, Lassya, Vaishnav, Reyansh, Anay, Srithan, and Saharsh are all individuals with different hobbies, talents, ideas, and experiences that combine to form Rockin’ Robos. While we may have individual talents, we share the common interests of learning, building, competing, and growing through robotics.
Rockin’ Robos is more than simply a group of individuals who build a common creation — the robot. Our team collaborates to develop solutions, make decisions, test ideas, learn from failures, and improve our designs. From early brainstorming sessions to planning for tournaments, communication and teamwork are essential in completing our objectives. Sometimes an idea works perfectly — and sometimes an idea is an utter disaster. However, we use each scenario to learn and apply lessons to future ideas.
Our team is also supported by our parents, who help us in numerous ways to make our robotics experiences possible. Our parents take us to meetings and competitions, remind us of important dates or events, support and encourage us, help us fundraise and network, provide us with the resources to work on our robot, and much more. Robotics requires a large amount of effort and commitment outside of competition days, and we appreciate everything our parents do to help us succeed in our pursuits.
What Is FIRST Tech Challenge?
FIRST® Tech Challenge is a robotics program in which students work with mentors to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a yearly competition. FTC incorporates numerous disciplines, including engineering, computer science, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and more. Students must be creative and innovative to design robots that can perform well in the game, use parts and tools effectively and efficiently, and successfully program their robots to complete tasks.
While students must work diligently and collaboratively to build and operate their robots, FTC is much more than simply a competition. FIRST describes the program as “More than Robots,” since teams are encouraged to pursue STEM opportunities, outreach, and documentation, as well as embody values such as Gracious Professionalism, teamwork, and collaboration.
Our 2026–2027 Season: BIOBUZZ™
For this season, Rockin’ Robos competes in the BIOBUZZ™ presented by RTX 2026–2027 FIRST Tech Challenge game. As part of the larger FIRST CANOPY™ season, teams were introduced to BIOBUZZ on September 12, 2026, and must use STEM and teamwork to imagine, engineer, and build a thriving planet.
This game presents us with a whole new challenge to solve. Our robot must be engineered to successfully complete the tasks and objectives of this season’s game, with consideration to the scoring elements, field layout, and rules.
This season’s game element focuses on the natural world. One of the significant scoring elements in this game is Pollen, which plays a vital role in the game.
For us, this game is more than simply developing a functioning robot — we must consider how our robot can complete specific tasks, how quickly and consistently it can do so, how our drivers can operate it effectively, and how our robot can work together with another robot in a match. Every decision and detail can impact our performance.
Building Our Robot
Designing and constructing our robot is one of the most important steps of our season. Before we can compete, we must transform our ideas into a physical robot through brainstorming, design, prototyping, construction, testing, programming, and more. Our engineering process consists of numerous trials and errors — a design or mechanism may be successful right away, or it may require multiple test runs before we are satisfied with the results.
Meanwhile, some mechanisms and designs may not work at all, and we must troubleshoot and test multiple variations before finding a potential solution. In addition, while a design may look successful on paper or while being tested in a controlled environment, it may fail once we attach it to our robot or use it on the field.
When an idea or method does not generate the results we want, we do not give up — we research, analyze, and troubleshoot to find a new solution.
Furthermore, we must create a robot that is dependable and consistent. A robot that only works at times is not going to be successful in competition. As such, we must test and troubleshoot our robot to ensure that it operates consistently and reliably under different conditions.
Programming
Programming is another essential aspect of our robotics team. Programming our robot enables it to complete tasks and operate under the control of our drivers. We must program our robot to function autonomously during autonomous time while also giving our drivers the tools and functions they need to drive our robot during driver time. According to FIRST, FTC matches consist of an autonomous period followed by a two-on-two driver-controlled period in which teams compete.
Programming requires patience and problem-solving, since we must find the right combination of code and functions to enable our robot to operate as intended. We must test our programs, troubleshoot, and optimize our code for the best results.
Competition
Competition day is the culmination of everything our team has worked for all season. FTC tournaments consist of various types of matches, including practice matches in some tournaments, qualification matches, and playoff matches for others. Qualification matches dictate our standing in the tournament bracket and enable us to advance to playoff rounds, where we must continue competing to ultimately determine the winning alliance at the event.
Furthermore, FTC tournaments are alliance-based, meaning teams do not compete independently — they must collaborate with one of the other teams at the event to form an alliance and compete as a combined team of two. As such, strong communication and collaboration are vital.
Ultimately, competition requires much more than simply having the fastest robot. Teams must prepare, practice, problem-solve, communicate, troubleshoot, strategize, and much more. We must be mindful that a competition match will almost certainly not go as planned, and we must be flexible and willing to adapt.
What Does It Mean to “Win”?
While winning a competition match is something our team strives for, “winning” can mean many different things to us. Naturally, we want our robot to perform at its best and enable us to qualify for higher-level competitions. However, teams in FTC are scored and ranked based on both gameplay and awards performance.
Awards in FTC are presented at the event level and enable teams to recognize and celebrate excellence in various categories, including machine design, creativity, innovation, team qualities, documentation, outreach, and more. FIRST describes the Inspire Award as the “all-around award.”
Ultimately, while a team may have a robot that performs exceptionally well on the field, a team must also consider how it communicates its values, demonstrates teamwork and collaboration, documents and shares its process, and fulfills its responsibility as an ambassador of STEM and robotics.
As such, we must strive to not only build the best robot we can but also become the best team we can be to achieve our full potential and “win” as a team.
Teamwork
Collaboration is one of the most critical aspects of our team. Each member of our team plays a different role and has different strengths, and we must work together to build the best robot we can. Our team members may excel in certain areas while learning and improving in others, but we can use each other’s strengths and encourage each other to improve in our weak areas.
Working on a robotics team also enables us to learn how to communicate and collaborate with each other. We may not always have the same ideas or solutions. We may disagree on the best approach to a particular issue. Instead of arguing, though, we can test, analyze, and troubleshoot to find the best potential solution.
Our Team Members
Deeksha, Lassya, Vaishnav, Reyansh, Anay, Srithan, and Saharsh each do their part for Rockin’ Robos. While we get to know each other better and spend more time working together, we hope that each of our teammates can contribute and strengthen their abilities in different aspects of the team.
As we continue to the next level of our robotics journey, we want to not only learn new skills, but we want our teammates to strengthen their skills, as well. Robotics gives us the opportunity to explore new areas of interest, from building and testing to programming and driving, from designing and documenting to outreach and presentations.
We may not know everything — yet. Our team is not defined by what we know — it is defined by what we are willing to learn.
Our Parents and Support System
Behind every successful robotics team is a tremendous support network. In many ways, parents play the most critical role in making a robotics team possible, since they help their children get to meetings and competitions, encourage and support them throughout the season, remind them of events and deadlines, fundraise, assist with organization, and more.
They may not always be the ones operating the tools or programming the robot, but they enable their children to explore their interests and pursue robotics. Students may spend hours at the venue working on their robot or competing, but parents provide the necessary resources to make it all possible.
We appreciate the sacrifices our parents make to help us succeed in our pursuits.
Outreach and the Community
FTC encourages teams to engage in outreach and share their passion for robotics with the community to introduce others to STEM and the fascinating world of robotics.
Engaging in outreach enables us to share our knowledge, meet new people, and encourage others to pursue STEM and become involved in robotics. We can inspire other students to engage in competitive events and demonstrate what it means to be an FTC team and develop our engineering and collaboration skills.
It is essential that we involve and engage the wider community and give others the opportunity to experience what we love so much about robotics. Our website serves as an extension of our outreach, since we want others to be able to follow our journey and learn more about our team and the FTC program.
Learning From Failure
One of the most valuable lessons of robotics is that failure is an integral part of engineering. Our first attempt is rarely perfect — it may not be our second attempt or our third. Mechanical failures, inconsistencies in programming, or differences in testing and playing conditions can cause our robot to behave differently than we expect.
However, that does not mean that we should give up. Instead, we can recognize that each failed attempt or setback is an opportunity to learn and apply that information to troubleshoot and ultimately improve our robot.
In many ways, that is the most rewarding aspect of robotics — and life.
Gracious Professionalism
One of the core values of FIRST is Gracious Professionalism, a code of conduct that encourages competitors to treat each other with respect and courtesy. According to FIRST, Gracious Professionalism is an “approach to life that brings out the best in people.” It encourages engineers, volunteers, and competitors to prioritize quality work, goodwill towards others, and respect for the community.
For Rockin’ Robos, that means remembering that other teams at competitions are students like us who have dedicated countless hours to designing, building, programming, and testing their robots in pursuit of the same objective — competing and succeeding in the FTC competition.
As such, we must uphold the values of Gracious Professionalism and work to ensure that we operate our robots to the best of our ability while continuing to demonstrate respect and courtesy towards our competitors, volunteers, and others in the community. We strive to encourage collaboration, share our knowledge, and recognize the hard work and dedication of others in the community. While competition is healthy and can motivate us to improve, we must ensure that we do not forget to celebrate the achievements of others.
What We Hope to Accomplish
Our goals for the season extend beyond competition, since we want to build the best robot we can and demonstrate our qualities as a strong, cohesive team. We aspire to continue developing our mechanical and programming skills while learning how to be better communicators and collaborators. We want to improve our documentation and presentation skills to demonstrate our journey as an FTC team. Most importantly, though, we want to have fun while we do it!
More Than a Robot
While people may remember our robot at the end of the season, we want people to remember our teamwork, our determination, our creativity, our drive — everything we have put into the pursuit of robotics and competition. We want to remember the late nights, the thrilling and exciting victories and, most importantly, the failures that taught us invaluable lessons and the hard work that made us better engineers, teammates, and competitors.
While many may only see the robot on the field, everything behind it is what makes it special. And the challenge is what makes it meaningful to us. Our journey has only just begun — and we are eager to build the future, one robot at a time.
Our Journey Continues
Rockin’ Robos looks forward to the future and all of the opportunities ahead. While our journey through the 2026–2027 FTC season continues, we will continue to design, build, program, test, compete, learn, and improve. There will be challenges ahead, but that is what makes robotics exciting and rewarding. We are proud of our accomplishments and excited about the future. Thank you to everyone who has supported us — our students, parents, mentors, volunteers, fellow teams, and the greater FIRST community. Rockin’ Robos builds, learns, competes, and innovates. We move forward, powered by passion and purpose.
