The Berlin High School Robotics Club received sponsorship from many of their prior partners.

“Both last year and this year, notably Generac, Badger Mining, and Drexel were three local companies who sponsor the robotics team,” Robotics adviser Guss Hetcher said.

This year’s funds were used toward updating the tools at the club’s disposal. These tools are now being used to improve their robot “Birthday Boy.” 

“Last year we had a lot of old and used materials in our bot, and now we’re able to buy new stuff that doesn’t suck, and we’re also buying new tools,” junior Mitchell Shubat said. 

From the competitions to the practices, Robotics can be demanding when it comes to the time spent working.

“We have practices on Wednesday nights, and I’ll stay here till 6-6:30. Then, every day, I have an independent study where I’m in there for an hour working on stuff,” Captain James Paskey said.

During those practices, the members can be working on many different things, from driving, coding, or simply building the robot.

“If we’re just practicing and driving around the boat doing mock matches, fixing out all the little problems that we have and fixing any issues that might come up while we’re driving,” Shubat said.

Robotic, not only requires time, but having some STEM skills.

“Being a critical thinker, being able to brainstorm, knowing a little bit about robots,” Shubat said. 

 The money provided to make the advancements helped the club place thirteenth in their competition, on Dec. 13, out of forty other teams.

“The competition itself went pretty well, considering we were probably a week out from finishing the robot, so when we got there, we were still building it. But, James is a great driver so we were still able to compete pretty well,” senior Daniel Dunbar said.

Like many clubs, the team is aiming for the top spot this season.

“The goal for this year is to qualify for the world competition,” Hetcher said.