( January 31, 2012 ) — Seven o’clock sharp on Jan. 5, Clark’s robotics team, the Circuit Breakers, gathered at the engineering lab to watch the robotics kickoff and to start coming up with ideas for their own robot. The kick-off broadcast, shown on NASA TV, showed what this year’s robot has to be able to do: shoot frisbees at various goals to earn points and climb a pyramid to receive bonus points. The higher the robot climbs, the more points the team earns. Sophomore Dylan Greicius said that he and his teammates would be meeting for about 200 hours over the next six weeks. Before the team can start building the robot, they have to design it using computer-aided design software; this helps create a model of the robot on the computer. Senior Erik Babakhanyan said that the look of the robot is also important. After all, the robot will be representing not only the team but also Clark itself. But looks aren’t the most important thing to building a robot. Making sure it does its job is the team’s first priority. According to sophomore Jack Najarian, a programmer on the team, the hood of last year’s robot was shaking, making it unable to shoot basketballs as accurately as they had wanted. Programmers have to make sure that the robot does what it is told to do and mechanical engineers have to make sure that the parts are in working order. The robot has to be able to shoot accurately, move around and climb in order to do well in the competition. Some people join robotics for the experience while others join to hang out with people with whom they share a common interest. “It’s a really great way to hang out and be constructive with your time,” Babakhanyan said. Clark, CV and other schools from around the country will be competing in March in the nationwide robotics competition called For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition. The competition is almost two months away and the team is about to enter week four of its build season. Najarian said the team is looking forward to a successful season. “We have stepped up our game,” he said. “Since we’re building two robots, we’ll be getting a lot more practice time. So we should do a lot better.”