At Thomas Edison CTE high school a big part of our identity is technology and ingenuity. We pride ourselves on being innovative, and increasing our skills in the field of engineering. With all that being said many of our students are participating in a drone competition hosted by RE and competition foundation.
Our school currently has four different teams consisting of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We have two teachers, Ms. Jafar and Mr. Deo that are guiding these teams so that they are able to compete at the highest level. There is one senior team, a junior team, and two sophomore teams all participating in this competition.
The competition is split up into four different sections, the teamwork section, the autonomous section, the piloting skills section, and the communication section. The key skills required for this competition is teamwork, python coding skills, and superior controlling skills.
We interviewed Lux Vasquez who is a student currently on the junior drone team about her role in preparing for the match. “My role is the pilot for the team, I fly/compete in the piloting skills mission. I mostly focus on myself during practices and getting my scores up,” Vasquez said. Everyone has a role to play and it takes everyone contributing equally in their section for the team to be successful.
In order to become qualified to participate in this competition you need to become FAA certified to show that you are capable of flying and maintaining a drone.
These students have been working hard for the past few months in order to prepare for this competition, staying back after school multiple hours a day critiquing every little aspect of the drone to make sure it is adequate and ready for the final competition.
“[Teamwork] is 100% the most important part of this competition. If you don’t collaborate well with your partner’s team you guys could lose horribly,” Vasquez said. Even with drone expertise being a major part of this competition, teamwork and collaboration is still essential to come out on top.
Taking into account that there are three different grade levels taking part in this event, every student has a different level of experience and knowledge. The different ages participating can bring forth various new perspectives and ideas that maybe someone of another age or in another group couldn’t have thought of.
When interviewing Jimmy Hernandez-Alameda who is a part of the senior team this vast difference in perspective and experience really comes to light. “Coding the drone was the most difficult part because we faced a lot of drifting and inconsistencies with the drone following the code, especially how batteries affect the code itself,” Hernandez-Alameda said.
Compared to Lux, Jimmy’s role on his team is different then Lux’s role on her team. Lux is more of the controller on her team, where she uses a device to control the drone and move it. Jimmy on the other hand has a different role where he codes the drone to fly autonomously. Both strategies move the drone to complete the course but they do it in completely different ways.
“Being able to compete and test your own skills against other students is the most exciting aspect. You get to see your hard work compete and see how far you can get in the competition,” Hernandez-Alameda said.
Most people would say competing and testing your skills is the scariest part of the entire competition, but Jimmy finds it the most exciting. This just goes to show he is there to improve upon his skills and compare himself to another to see where he can possibly improve.
Robotics student, Matthew Velez, who has worked with drones before shared his feelings about the competition and the idea of working with the drones to complete objectives.
“I think it’s great, many of the people on those drone teams are looking to pursue engineering as their career so I’m glad that they are taking this opportunity to expand their knowledge on various aspects of engineering. It can really help them later on,” Velez said.
With all that said all four of Edison’s team are working hard in order to prepare for their competition where teamwork and collaboration will have a huge impact on where they will place. With everyone playing their own role, the outcome of this competition will come down to who’s the most effective working as a team. With the work these teams have put in, there is non doubt that they will do well.
