🔓Brevard County students promote STEM through PINK robot, competition

It’s a club combining STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and competition. The Pink Robotics Team is made up of students from several schools in Brevard County.

The Pink Team is one of dozens from around the world competing in a number of competitions throughout the season. The most recent was the FIRST Robotics Competition at UCF’s arena.

News 6 Insider Guide Crystal Moyer was there to see the intense moments.

Competition organizers release the goal or purpose of the competitions to the teams in January. Each team came up with a design and built a robot from scratch that competes against other robots in the arena.

“I was really interested in robotics when I went to middle school registration. They had the robot on display. I found out I really enjoyed it and then continued the journey through high school,” said Samuel Villegas.

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Villegas is one of about 20 members of the Pink Robotics team made up of students from Rockledge, Cocoa Beach, Space Coast High Schools as well as homeschooled students.

“We’re one of the fastest bots out there,” said Cocoa Beach High freshman Gabriella Fuste.

The team took on other robots in this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition at UCF.

The Pink Team partnered with another group to collect balls and shoot it up and through the funnel. The amount of balls collected through the funnel generates points. The higher points would put the corresponding robots in a higher ranking.

Like many other teams, the Pink team ran into some issues in the arena.

“Our batteries for some reason are showing us less power than it should. When we shoot the balls, it’s not going as high and we’re hitting the rim and not going in,” said Fuste.

“It’s not a mechanical issue, we know that much, and the software shows nothing, so we know it’s an electrical issue or wiring. We want to change out the motor and check the brain box,” said Cocoa Beach High senior Lolic Baron.

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Making adjustments and strategizing are all part of the game. The Pink team works with captains and mentors from NASA, Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin, running diagnostics and using critical thinking and engineering to find a solution.

“This is the hardest fun you’ll ever have… It’s very important to teach these kids characteristics, like patients and good morale. Part of my job is being tedious because I can’t wreck a half-billion-dollar machine. Same with the Pink robot. You’ve got to be nice and easy and be tedious about what you’re doing, so it works correctly and you don’t break anything,” said Blue Origin Machinist Robert Koehler.

Each team member is assigned a role whether it’s technician, captain or driver. After a few tweaks, the team was on their way back to the arena for another round. The robotics teams not only had support from other teams who will step in to help with any issues or provide expertise, but parents and students were in the stand cheering them on during each match.

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“It’s a cool opportunity to meet people from all around the world with different perspectives and different ways of looking at things. It’s fun working with other teams,” said Villegas.

There are quite a few robotics teams in Central Florida, all putting up a good fight. For now, none of them taking the top spot. The competition isn’t over yet, the teams will travel to New Orleans at the end of March for their next competition.

If you’re wondering, ‘why the Pink team?’ When the team formed in 1999, a group of students and teachers set a meeting to vote on a name. According to team members, the boys never showed up to that meeting and the girls all voted for the ‘Pink Team’ name which has stuck ever since.

Click here to see the Pink Team’s standings and watch some videos from the competition.

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