This year, a third team has been added to accommodate increased interest in Lafayette’s Robotics Club, with about 38 members.

The three teams are the Fermions, with team captain sophomore Akhil Rajan, Kaons, with team captain senior Rohit Sayeeganesh and Hadrons with team captains junior Anika Jogelkar and sophomore Sohan Paul.

“The season is going great. The actual game is really challenging and engaging with multiple different ways to score, which always makes the season fun,” Sayeeganesh said. 

To be eligible to compete, the teams have to meet certain requirements.

“There are strict rules about the robot size and the parts that can be used on the robot. It has to be hand-built, you can’t use off-the-shelf pre-assembled parts, which makes building a robot for the yearly challenge a design challenge for students,” Robotics Club sponsor Shannon Campbell said.

Despite these challenges, Sayeeganesh says his team, the Kaons, is in good shape.

“So far, the season is going great for us. We have a fully built robot, which can do all of the challenges necessary to score many points,” he said. 

Along with this the team greatly values competition.

“The goal is always to win, no matter the team. Even if the actual organization promotes that all teams are winners at the end of the day, there is only one winner that takes the trophy,” Sayeeganesh said.

Besides competition, the LHS Robotics Club has participated in other events.

“Besides the meets, they have been doing outreach events, like STEM nights, working with the Cub Scouts and doing fundraisers,” Campbell said.

Although members of the club enjoy competition, they have also enjoyed the events they have been doing this year.

“I love outreach because it allows us as a robotics team to promote robotics and STEM in general to the local community,” Jogelkar said.

Along with competition and outreach events, the team members also appreciate the relationships they’ve formed with each other.

“My favorite part of being in the team is the team bonding aspect. Our team gets along really well, and at the end of the day we always get a good laugh out of everything,” Sayeeganesh said.

On the other hand, the Hadrons have experienced some setbacks, but overall they’re doing well.

“We have seen setbacks but we have come back better every time and we plan to continue that,” Paul said. “Our hopes are that we perform well at our next tournaments, and as we are a predominantly rookie team, we are looking to learn more about everything. I think that with the number of people we have and the relationship we all have with each other, the tournaments will go very well for us.”

Considering the Hadrons are the new team, they are still pushing through and putting in the effort.

“Taking into account that our team is a new team, [the season is] going pretty well. Our team members are hardworking and collaborate well as a team, which is really nice to see as a captain,” Jogelkar said.