Our Tualatin High School (TuHS) robotics team made it to regionals this year in Salem, Ore. This is the first time since 2019 that our robotics team has made it to compete at a regional level. Last year, the team made it to Regionals, but they were not able to attend due to the vast amount of snow. 

During the regional competition on March 1st, they won one match. Even though they did not place first, they gained remarkable knowledge that they wouldn’t have been able to without the opportunity to compete at a regional level. Overall, the TuHs robotics team won four awards during this robotics season. Awards such as the Judges Award, Sportsmanship Award, Design Award and Tourtament Champions. 

With this year coming to a rapid ending, three seniors on the team will be graduating and leaving the robotics team. These seniors are Liam Grouell, Ethan Hoang, and Carson Page. Grouell is an engineer for B Bot. Hoang is an engineer for A Bot and a driver; he drove A Bot at regionals. Page is the head coder for the robotics team. 

“If anyone out there is passionate about anything creative, robotics is a great place for you,” Grouell said. “Most people would imagine building robots as a lot of math and science. You’re not wrong. But robotics also requires an immense amount of creativity. I’m going into college for Audio Engineering and Sonic Arts, and robotics was very helpful in giving me technical challenges for critical thinking. I wish I had joined robotics earlier in high school.” 

Grouell’s time with the robotics team has left him with new knowledge, skills, and memories.

“Robotics was a very pleasing experience. I got to meet new people, go to new places, and build robots,” he said. “Even though the primary focus of the club is robots and competing in the tournaments, I found the most attractive part was the cooperation with my teammates in building our robot.”  

Page agreed that interested students shouldn’t hesitate to join. 

“Teamwork is super important to get anything done in a timely manner,” he said. “For those interested in joining, give it a try! We’ve got a great group of engineers, programmers, and media team that are all super welcoming, whether you have no experience or have been doing it for years.”  

Congratulations to the robotics team for the hard work they put in this year. It has clearly paid off. Farewell to the students graduating, and welcome to those who will join and become a part of an amazing team.