Friday, March 20, 2009 By Ani Khodanian [ArticleImageHyperLink] Advertising Circuit Breakers prepare for regional competition (January 27, 2006) -- On Saturday Jan. 17 the Circuit Breakers, Clark’s Robotics team members, arrived to school at 7:30 a.m., where they watched a televised kick-off of the Robotics competition. During this time, they were given the rules of the game, the scoring method and options for the robot. In preparation for the upcoming Phoenix regional competition on March 9 and Los Angeles regional competition on March 23, the Circuit Breakers will spend at least three days a week after school for six weeks designing their robot. Last year they needed to get their robot to pick up tetras and place them in goals, but this year’s challenge is different and a bit harder. The Circuit Breakers must build a robot that is able to throw and score balls into a goal at the end of the field, such as in basketball. They can either score in high goals nine feet above the ground or low goals in the corners. As of now, the team is coming up with designs with a CAD program, which allows them to make a drawing and put together a virtual model. Senior Kevin Lee, the teams drive-train leader, who has been on the team since sophomore year, says that there are fun aspects to it despite the hard work. “Even though working for the team for six weeks is tiring, you get to know the members a lot better by spending this much time together. We eat together, study together and sometimes spend all night at school working,” Lee said. After staying in the competition all the way to the quarterfinals last year, the team has comes up with an idea to ensure a better performance. “We are planning on building two robots, so that when we ship one on Feb. 21, we can use the other to practice driving,” team advisor Chuck Devore said. With seven new members, six of them who are girls, the team has its highest number of females in its history. “This team has very experienced, savvy veterans and enthusiastic new members,” Devore said.

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