(January 24, 2008) — While most students spent the morning in bed, sophomore Muntasir Kader was up at 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 5 to join his team members, the Circuit Breakers, and watch the For Inspiration in Science and Technlogy (FIRST) Robotics Competition kick off. Kader arrived at Clark in the morning to find that the school televisions could not show the kick off. Eager to not miss the reveal of this year’s game, almost all memebers went to Principal Doug Dall’s house to watch the show. The members learned that this year’s game will be different than expected. The goal of the 2008 robotics competion, OverDrive, is to get as many points as posible by driving counter-clockwise, hurding a 40-inch ball called a trackball, throwing the track ball over a 6 and a half foot overpass or by acomplishing all three. First year team member freshman Laura Widholm was shocked at how diffucult the task at hand was. “My head hurts just thinking about it,” Widholm said while working with JPL Engineer Hanna Goldburg on a possible telescoping arm design. Wildholm is one of the six members who have joined the team this year. The large number of new members means that veteran members will be doing more teaching than ever. “This is going to be a year with emphasis on learning,” senior Angie Wang said. “Especially in programming, to make sure we have programmers next year.” Along with new members, the team has taken in new mentors. JPL Engineer Mike Doulfin heard about the Circuit Breakers from current mentor Andy Carmain and decided to join. Unfortunately, the team has also lost some mentors. Bryce Hancock, who had mentioned the programming team, will not be able to help this year along with Mark Kauffman, who used to do much of the team’s manufacturing. That and the lack of experience in machining among the members have caused some worry. Despite the shortage of resources, the team is working on the new robot, putting in about 25 hours a week. They plan to attend the Los Angeles and San Diego Regionals in March.