Team Ultraviolet High Wellesley High robotics club feels right at home

When we first wrote a few years ago about Wellesley High School Ultraviolet Teamclub FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), most of the non-competitive activities took place in the garage of a team member’s home. But since this student had already graduated and the premises became unavailable the following year, the club decided to move into the high school building itself to continue its activities.

“This year we are committed to building our new home at Wellesley High School,” writes Neha Guruprasad, who answered our questions along with fellow club members John Brosnahan, Alexis Lee and Stephanie Xia. “Wellesley Public Schools has graciously provided operational funding to our team for the past several years, but we are looking for new work space… Installing an entire robot manufacturing and storage facility at the high school has definitely been a challenge, but we have made some progress.”

The club is working to improve the mobility of its construction facility to make transportation to the high school easier. He also tries to teach as many robot classes as possible in the middle school. “In addition to increasing the resiliency of our team, the move to the middle school will provide a more convenient experience for our members and greater integration with the Wellesley Public School system,” the team says.

Busy summer

The Ultraviolet team spends the summer busy teaching robotics to young people.

High school students have been conducting workshops and robotics demonstrations for children since 2021, following the founding of the club in 2020. Last summer marked the start of the second year of Space Rover Robotics training at the Recreation Center, and Team Ultraviolet is also hosting the FIRST Lego League (FLL). for middle school students. “Our FLL teams also serve as a link to our (FIRST Robotics Competition) team, ensuring our sustainability!” says Guruprasad, the group’s impact lead (this involves coordinating efforts to make a positive impact on the community by increasing awareness and access to STEM education, such as through legislative action).

Last summer, about 10 Ultraviolet team members taught more than 40 students in grades 4-6 in three-hour sessions that included snacks and free play time. “Students will learn how electrical circuits work, what NASA’s Mars rovers do, and design and build their own mini-rovers in pairs. They then fly their rovers in groups and play games, similar to what we do with our robot at the FIRST robotics competition during the school year. On the last day of the workshops, students will get to meet and work with our 125 lb competition robot, which is always a lot of fun for them!” This is Team Ultraviolet speaking.

Although it is difficult to keep the attention of younger children, Guruprasad says months of planning and a focus on hands-on learning ensured the children were engaged and enjoying themselves. Highlights included problem solving for younger children, as well as engineering and modification for those more experienced.

“One of the big takeaways for us was that every child is unique, and by connecting with each one as an individual, we are best able to help develop their curiosity and allow it to flourish. Our mentor to mentee ratio of 3:1 or lower allows us to give each child the attention they need. We also learned that it is best to group students based on age and experience so that each child can learn new concepts rather than repeating ones they may already be familiar with,” the team says, noting that some children come having already used programs such as Scratch.

New season for the Ultraviolet team.

By early October, the Ultraviolet team had nearly four dozen members, a number expected to grow as the school year progresses.

“Team resilience is an important theme for us this year… We welcome all students to our team, including those who may not typically see themselves in STEM,” the team said. “Besides the technical aspect of designing and building the robot, our team has a large administrative division that manages everything from logistics to outreach, workshops and social media. We want to hire not only new students, but also mentors, as we would like to find more mentors on the WPS staff to give us advice. We also need to raise funds to build our competition robot. These workshops are fundraising and we also have GoFundMe where anyone can donate to our non-profit team.”

The Ultraviolet team is currently in pre-season training, followed by a construction season. The preseason includes recruiting participants, issuing grants to raise money for robot parts, and launching projects and workshops that teach and apply skills from soldering to programming. The software subgroup, for example, will reprogram last year’s robot called Cone Head, and the mechanics subgroup will repair damage to the robot from two years ago.

“Since we do not know the rules of the game we will be competing in at this time, pre-season work is aimed at teaching participants to start working on the robot after the rules are announced,” the team says.

January marks the beginning of the Kickoff construction season, during which FIRST Robotics announces the gaming competition of the year for all teams around the world. That’s when the Ultraviolet team really begins brainstorming, with the goal of creating a clear robot design within a couple of weeks.

Participants then spend six weeks creating a robot that will be used in competitions with other New England high school teams in late February through April.

“During each competition, we compete in team matches called alliances, which consist of three randomly selected robots. Each alliance must complete a task, such as arranging blocks and cones, balancing on a seesaw, or shooting baskets, depending on what the game is that year. After each game, the alliance with the most points wins the match, which helps improve the overall ranking of each team. Between matches and competitions, we can repair or improve our robots to make them the best they can be,” explains Team Ultraviolet.

The club is not only involved in competitions. In the spirit of working with the community, it is running demos for organizations such as the Girl Scouts and participates in events such as the Annual Veterans Parade during Wellesley’s Miracle Weekend.

Have questions for the team or want to help? Contact the Ultraviolet team at [email protected]

You can also follow their adventures on Instagram.

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