Because some students come to this school unsure of whether they wish to commit themselves to something as time consuming as robotics, engineering and robotics teacher David Black came up with a new club this year, the Vex Club.

According to junior Russell Caletena, a club team leader,  Vex Club acts as a taste of the challenge that is to come in the full robotics program. “I joined Vex as a demo,” says sophomore Andrea Bazques. “I can’t decide if I should join robotics or not.” Caletena says he joined Vex because his “tight schedule” made it difficult to commit to the robotics program.

Club members build two robots. According to junior Mikia Zohrabian, there are two teams: team A and team B, with each team making its own robot. Meanwhile, a small group of people from either team makes the stage for testing the robots.“The robots are under a restriction of 18 x 18 x 18,” Caletena says. “The two robots we build will go on a countywide contest where the two Clark robots may work with or against each other.”

The challenge itself is referred to as the Skyrise Challenge. “The robots are meant to pick up cubes with huge holes in them and stack them on a poll,” says one of the builders, sophomore Arpi Iskandaryan. According to Iskandaryan, the process consists of a building part and a programming part, so both engineers and programmers are welcome.

More importantly, both engineers and programmers have heavy weight on their shoulders. “There’s 100% teamwork,” says Iskandary. “Every member counts.” And indeed they do, for the challenge needed to overcome isn’t easy. Even though there is a person working on every joint of the robot, the great challenge is that “there are no instructions,” as Basquez says. Another member, sophomore Devin Gallagher describes the activity “like a puzzle, and you have to figure how to build it without any instructions.”

The club has the aid of several engineering students, including Basquez and Zohrabian. The team members seem enthusiastic about their job, as one member, sophomore Nanor Asadourian, summarized her feelings for the club by saying, “I like building stuff.”

And so under the guidance of the two group leaders, Cañedo and Caletena, and the ever-watchful eyes of photography teacher Greg Zamlich and robotics teacher David Black, and even with the aid of a student from GCC Arega Margousian, the group moves forward to Dec. 7, the date of their first competition.