The Phoenix Fury FTC Qualifier, Dane County's first robotics qualifier in more than seven years, drew nine teams from schools across southern Wisconsin to Glacier Creek Middle School Saturday morning, kicking off robotics season with four hours of competition.
Each match promised an action-packed few minutes, beginning with an autonomous period, when drivers cannot guide their robots. The stakes rise when that initial hands-off period ends and drivers take up their controls, dozens of eyes gazing through mandatory safety glasses toward the mats as they maneuver their robotic creations toward pixels, the colorful hexagons the robots are supposed to move for points. Buzzers ushered in a heightened sense of urgency and paper planes launched from their bots with the psychedelic whimsy of freshly painted carousel horses.
The dust settled around 4:30 p.m. with closing ceremonies and awards.
None of the robots in the pit Saturday belonged to Phoenix Fury, the team from Middleton High School. But according to Jai and Diya Dhawal, two of the team's core members, hosting the event was a victory all its own.
For months, the siblings have been planning Saturday's event, inviting teams to participate, searching for volunteers and spreading the word to their peers while their coaches, who also happen to be their parents, championed their cause to local businesses to gain sponsorships.
The list of sponsors is long, including names like Google, Chipotle and Gigi's Cupcakes. Just about everybody in a 30-mile radius must have heard about Saturday somehow. The servers at Chipotle. The ushers at the AMC theater. The visiting National Guard soldiers at Middleton High School. The Dhawals' marketing campaign for Saturday's qualifier paid dividends, they said, in the form of a room full of Chipotle guacamole and more than a hundred spectators and volunteers seated in the bleachers. All to advance the reach of STEM programming and events.
"These types of events are pretty inspiring for people to start their own teams," said Jai, 16. "The essential goal is to just like bring a lot more STEM influence into our community."
EARLY APTITUDE
It may not be reflected in census records, but the Dhawal siblings grew up in Lego city, the colorful brick facades and plastic yellow faces as real to them as any of the scenery outside their home. From an early age, the two showed an aptitude for science, technology, engineering and math, something their mother and coach, Damini Dhawal, quickly picked up on. They endeavored into the world of robotics when they were 5 and 6 years old, with a Lego building league run by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, later going into the FIRST Tech challenge, for which they hosted the robotics competition Saturday.
In the time they've been involved in robotics, the Dhawals have been to a number of competitions in Milwaukee, many of which boasted more than 30 teams and crowds in the hundreds. The siblings want to see more of that closer to home, and starting out small has allowed them to draw attention to their cause without the added pressure of a massive turnout.
"We made it our goal to not only get more teams in Madison but also make Madison kind of that hub for tech that Milwaukee is," said Diya, 15. "It's less of a super cutthroat start and more of like a 'Hey, we're all in this together.'"
Beyond the competition, the Dhawals have been adding steadily to the dozen or so kids on their robotics team, supplementing their numbers by starting outreach efforts early, working with elementary-age kids through Lego League summer camps and robotics mentoring. Not only are they building robots, Diya said, they're also building opportunities, lifelong connections and resources.
"While I love the whole building a robot part of it, I feel like the outreach part is the part that makes me feel like I'm making an impact in my community, it's the part I love the most," Diya said. "It really helps you channel your energy into something, so you're creating something for the world."
Once they cleared the tables and tore down the signs Saturday to convert the robotics stadium back into a middle school, the Dhawals looked forward to the season that lay ahead of them. Further into the future, Jai hopes to go into the aerospace field. Diya wants to be an astrophysicist. But even when they say goodbye to Middleton High School, the pair say they have no plans to give up on robotics.
"This is always going to be something that's very near and dear to us," Jai said.
"In the future, where I go, I will always find teams and stuff like that to help," added Diya.
Still, even looking ahead, Damini Dhawal remembers when her confident, well-spoken kids were just little ones toiling away in their Lego city. Just as she's watched them grow up, she hopes to watch STEM programming grow in the area from the seeds the family has planted.
"We never, like, pushed them in a way, I kind of let them guide their own way," Damini said. "Our goal is next year to kind of help champion, you know, getting grants and getting all of that stuff to get it going."
©2023 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.