By Carter Headstrom, Editor-in-Chief, The Puma Press

With the opening of the ULab, there are many places to explore throughout the new building. One of them, located front and center on the second floor, is the new Makerspace. Along with housing activities like virtual reality, Engineering Club, and drones, the Makerspace also hosts Robotics Club. 

The leader of the club, sophomore Noah R., loves the new space. He has pursued robotics since arriving at UPrep as a sixth grader.

“It’s awesome,” Noah said. “There is so much more room, more tables, and more opportunity for collaboration. Now everyone can be collaborating on one robot at the same time. Instead of having a big table where three teams are working, we can spread out.”

For Upper and Middle School Robotics Coach Matt Palubinskas, the quality difference is massive. 

“The new Makerspace is magnitudes better,” Matt said. “It’s like going from a bicycle to a car.” 

Technology Coordinator Jonathon Delgado, who was responsible for deciding what equipment to put in the room, noted that the room is eight times bigger than the one in the main building. 

“There we could not have a lot of kids flying drones because of the limitations of space, but now with this bigger space, we can have all those programs here,” Jonathon said.

From the robotics perspective, the space allows the team to trial their creations.

“We are going to get the opportunity to test our robots more often because previously we just built it, and then the first chance we got to test it was when we went to the competition,” Noah said.

According to Noah, the club is a place where students can tinker around and build robots, which then are used in competitions. There are four competitions every year. 

“It’s two teams of two robots fighting against each other, running into each other, hitting each other, trying to score the most points,” Noah said. 

Along with the promise of being able to engineer with friends, the exciting competitions are what keeps Noah coming back each year. 

“You go into a match and there are a couple minutes of robots running into each other trying to score the most points,” Noah said. “It’s very fast-paced and hectic.”

The club meets twice a week after school for an hour and a half. They look to increase the amount of meetings as the club expands. Last year, there were only four students; now, there are 12. Noah is constantly in recruiting mode as he thinks of new ways to lure new members, especially with the new Makerspace as leverage. 

“We need to start cutting steel during Community Time where everyone can see because the sparks go everywhere and it’s really cool,” Noah said. “A lot of people have been saying it feels way too complicated to join, but it’s just screwing pieces in.”

With the increased chance for growth, Noah appreciates the new location and all that comes with it. 

“This ULab is an amazing new space,” Noah said. “This is an amazing opportunity for the robotics club.”

A Q&A WITH THE PUMA PRESS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CARTER H., 11TH GRADE

How did you come up with this story idea?

I was thinking about what voices are underrepresented or less advertised in our community. We do a lot of stories about sports and plays, but I haven’t heard much about the Robotics Team or the Makerspace in general. I was trying to say they are here and they’re doing all of these cool things. They were excited [to be interviewed] because it was an opportunity for recruitment. They are all very passionate about robotics.  

What surprised you while working on this article?

Their enthusiasm. Like when I came during their club meeting to take their picture and how they responded. They wanted to have me take a picture [that showed] sparks because it looks cool and people would come to their club. They got all this lighting [set up for the shot]. They were really into it, and it was a fun article to do because I was helping get their perspective and their club out there.

What did you learn while working on this piece?

I learned more about this group of people and how they are so passionate about engineering. They talked about going to Boeing to visit one of the facilities. It was cool to see people I don’t really interact with daily because we are in different grades, or they are in different clubs. I liked seeing their passion for something I haven’t thought about much and to realize engineering is very interesting.

How long have you been working on The Puma Press?

I took one semester of Journalism in 8th grade, and I’ve taken Journalism class [and worked on the paper] every semester of high school. I started because my sister took it, and she really liked it. I started getting more and more passionate about it because, first of all, the environment of the class is great. As a class, we’re doing important things but everyone is having fun while doing it. It’s a collaborative and fun environment. Journalism in general is important because it’s sharing the perspectives of people who aren’t normally heard from. I feel like that’s very powerful—even on the small level of a school newspaper. If you scale it up, it gets even more important but even a student newspaper can have an impact. Sharing someone’s voice makes them happy and I feel like it’s important to me to share people’s voices.

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