(Dec. 22, 2010) — Clark’s robotics team, The Circuit Breakers, is anticipating the kickoff of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition on Jan. 8, the date when FIRST announces the objective of the game and students pledge to the large amount of work of the upcoming months. In past seasons, students met for long hours afters school from January to mid-March, and have even slept over at school in order to get the robot finished and shipped on time. The competition this year is held March 24–26, and though that date may seem distant some on the team worry when they think about time management issues that occurred last year. “This year we have more plans and will be more dedicated,” said sophomore Corey Hoard. “Last year, mechanical team was kind of a joke.” With no knowledge of what the upcoming season will hold for them, veterans meet with rookie participants during the weekend to teach them what’s what in building a robot. “We don’t have a lot of time, so we don’t want to waste time learning the basics,” said Hannah Goldberg, a team mentor and JPL engineer. More than a month in advance, rookie members cram learning the basics of programs such as Inventor and LabView, as well as how to utilize motors, linkages, levers and various physics concepts into their designs. “I’m sort of nervous because there are a lot of skills to learn. I haven’t done something this large scale,” said freshman Nicco Mekerdichian. Mekerdichian joined the team because he was interested in programming and engineering. The Circuit Breakers have won once before in 2007 when they reached the finals and went on to the international competition in Atlanta. Last year, they placed forth to last in the Los Angeles regional competition, but former members have hope that this year will end with a different outcome. “We have more chances of doing better this year because we learned from our failures,” said junior William Spurgeon, president of the robotics team. Last year’s failure was mainly due to the robot failing to operate as was designed because of miscommunication and failure to meet deadlines.