Speaking to senior Micah Newcomer, he comes across as a serious, mathematically-minded student. However, his passion for engineering and robotics shines through as the conversation goes on. Newcomer’s dedication has grown past the school hours; he spends much of his days planning and working not just for his own benefit, but for the future of his team.
What is your role on the robotics team?
I am the project manager for the robotics team and co-lead.
What do those roles entail?
For project management, I organize events. I am in charge of scheduling practices when Mr. (Matt) Cole (the Robotics teacher) wants them, and other events, social team events, sponsorship events, anything that we’re doing. And then I also run projects, like getting team shirts. And then in season, I’m going to be the go-between between a lot of groups, so that a design team can create a part, a manufacturing team can make the part, a mechanical team can put the part on the robot, and then an electrical team can wire in that part, and then our drive team will be able to use that robot. For co-leading during competitions, it just means that I am making sure everyone’s doing their job, and then I get to represent our team on the field during our alliance selection.
What does a typical robotics competition look like?
The first day we have an advanced team go early to set up our pit, this 10 by 10 by 10 area that we can put materials in to help fix our robot …. Then, the robot has to be checked by official regulators and we have a few practice matches. The next day, we get everyone there, we get the pit personnel all briefed and in the pit …. We send our scouters to the stands to get data from other robots …. The first 50 or 60 prelim matches are on the first day. … The final day we do prelims before lunch and then we have the alliance selection, where the top eight ranked teams have their choice of all the other teams as an alliance selection. Then, we begin the playoff matches. If you lose a match during the playoffs, there’s a loser bracket. So, you have to lose two matches to get out of the playoffs. Eventually, the winner will be declared, and it’s an alliance of three different teams. We got third at the last competition.
What are your goals for the robotics team?
I would say two major goals. The obvious one is to win a regional competition and get a bid to Houston, to Worlds. Our second goal is to train as many of our juniors, sophomores and freshmen as possible in coding, manufacturing and design, so that they can do even better next year.
How long have you been involved and interested in robotics?
I actually haven’t been involved that long. I’ve done engineering in some form all four years, but I only joined the actual team last year, my junior year, during the fall, and they made me a scout manager for the competitions. And then this year I got promoted to project manager. I am very involved now. I think I put in more hours to the team than any other member.
Do you plan on pursuing similar roles in the future, whether in college or as a career?
Oh, yeah, I want to do mechanical engineering at college and I really just like the idea of assembling different components and then building something new. I guess I love doing that. I just want to pursue that as much as I can.
