Salma Griffioen is a journalism student at Gilbert Christian High School assigned to cover high school sports for AZPreps365.com

The Robotics team, The Knights of the Lab Table #8081, has been a part of Gilbert Christian High School for years, but many people don’t fully understand what Robotics does or even who they are.

Robotics team member and captain, Hailey Murray, shares all about it, saying, “The robotics team is a unique sport's team at Gilbert Christian High School that competes in the First Tech Challenge by building a functional robot. In addition to building and programming a robot, we do 3-D printing, outreach activities for our community and other schools, and team building events.”

Murray shared that the Robotics team has grown immensely since the beginning of the year. With only three returning members and 12 new members, they were able to build a sophisticated robot with encoders, sensors, an adaptable collecting and delivering system, a launcher, and LEDs.

Those involved in Robotics are incredibly committed to the success of the team. Students on the team meet during a class period each day, after school, and typically on Saturdays. Murray says, “Generally, fifteen hours every week is required when joining the Robotics team, but we always take into consideration limitations with sports or family. Usually, team members have no problem fulfilling the requirement since many of us spend time together working on Robotics after school, and having one class period dedicated to Robotics throughout the day is definitely helpful too.” 

Murray also shared that the Robotics Team is like one big family. Although she knew members of the team before joining, Murray feels she now knows everyone on the team very well through shared team building activities such as pool parties, a game night, and a team breakfast. She even says, “I have met my best friends at school through the team. There are many people from different grades and separate friend groups that join the team, but we all get along great. We have different planned events almost every weekend where we spend time together, and I would definitely say that we are more of a family than just a team.” 

This is Murray’s second year on the team. Her role is team captain and head programmer. Before joining, as previously mentioned, she was previously acquainted with other team members, and even had some experience coding before coming on as a programmer. While Murray had some experience before joining the team she says it is definitely not a requirement. 

A large part of Murray’s position as a programmer is coding. Murray shared her greatest coding challenge, which she was able to successfully master:

“The greatest coding challenge I have mastered is compiling the code for our autonomous program last year. With the help of my fellow programmer Luke, we were able to create an autonomous program that implemented encoders, ultrasonic distance sensors, a color distance sensor, and a separate thread in the code to run the intake and outtake system. This included programming the robot to drive in the autonomous mode and go particular distances using encoders that counted the number of motor revolutions that happened. Additionally, we edited the code so that we could utilize any ultrasonic distance sensor on all four sides of the robot to drive to a very precise distance to account for the potential inconsistencies that would happen when the motors slipped. We utilized a color-distance sensor to detect when we collect the blocks during autonomous so that we could optimize the time taken during the 30 seconds. Additionally, we discovered a feature of the programming language, Java, that we had never implemented before called "threading" that allowed us to run two separate files at once. We used a thread to run the intake and outtake system so that we could control it separately from the rest of the robot during autonomous.”

Not only was this one of Murray’s greatest coding victories, but it is also one of the most innovative solutions she has successfully implemented. 

In addition to her knowledge of programming, Robotics has also taught Murray a lot about herself. “I have learned to develop both my ingenuity and perseverance through being the head programmer and team captain of the Robotics team, and I have discovered how to be an effective leader.” Murray states. 

Murray and the team are also very grateful for the several mentors, such as Mr. Monroe, Mr. Zimmerman, and Mr. Young who have worked with them to enrich their knowledge of the engineering-design process and code organization.

Overall, the team as a whole, has worked hard and has been performing quite well this year while having a fun time equipping the new team members with skills, promoting STEM, doing robotics and glorifying God throughout the school year season. In each competition they are winning numerous awards, and are currently ranked fourth in the state. They have high hopes to do even better and to dominate in the upcoming state competition.