HPHS’ Robotics team took on the LAUSD Regional East Qualifier of the 2025-2026 season on February 7th.
Every year, the season for FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) begins in October, with competitions, known as scrimmages, leading up to regional qualifiers, where teams selected can compete at the FIRST Championship.
The FTC is a league open to teams from 7th-12th grade that requires students to design, build, and program a robot. The robot is composed of various components and mechanisms, having to meet specific criteria to qualify for competition, including having a starting configuration of an 18-inch cube.
In addition, teams are scored based on interview, creativity, design, coding, and strategy, where students have to describe how their robot was developed, and how it aims to help society.
This season, Spartanbots had two teams, and two robots. Team 1, WALL-EYES, included members Aiden Pina, Sean Soto, David Cisneros, and Gerson Osorio, who created their robot Wall-E. Meanwhile Team 2, C.A.N.E.L.O., included members Angheli Kristal Diaz Torres, Elizabeth Delgadillo, Alexia Carpio, and Jazmin Prado, who worked together to create their robot Terreneitor.
However, both teams spent days and trials revising their robot to be competition-ready:
“We didn’t really have a step-by-step plan, or any sketches of what we were going to build…we built what we thought would work best and [fixed] things as we went on,” explains Sean Soto, the programmer for Team WALL-EYEs
Building their robots took various weeks, including staying late after-school. For team C.A.N.E.L.O., it took days of taking apart their robot Terrinetor to create the best version according to Team Captain Angheli Kristal Diaz Torres.
In addition to building and programming, both teams, as part of competition criteria, had to market their team brand through a portfolio, and conduct community outreach.
Team C.A.N.E.L.O., partnering with HPHS Youth Action club, conducted outreach through community organizing, including aiding in the November food drive. With effort from their team marketer, Jazmin Prado, team C.A.N.E.L.O., won the FTC Reach Award, demonstrating their success in outreach.
Although neither Spartanbots team qualified to represent Region east, both teams demonstrated resilience, cooperation and teamwork.
Congratulations to our Spartanbots for another successful season!
Written by Monserrath Bucio M., News Editor