The Archbishop Mitty High School robotics team competing in its first robotics competition in March, received the highest Rookie Seed Award and was awarded the General Motors Industrial Design Award.

The team competed in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) regional event held at the San Jose State Events Center; 46 teams faced off.

After the qualifying rounds, the AMHS team ranked #11 overall. In the more aggressive games of the championship round, the team made it to the semifinals.

The motivation for forming a robotics team began with the AMHS Science Club last year. Science Club president and sophomore Paolo Baltar recruited team members.

Together with teachers Mike Greene (math) and Chris Fairley (science), the team included seniors Dane Boulton, Brian Evans and Matt Weiss, juniors Jonathan Chen and Bruno Mehech, sophomore Scott Pierson, and freshmen Andy Chu, Sophia Carvalho, Andrew DiLullo, Shaun Kelsey, Daniela Mehech, Stephanie Schmit, Diane Strutner and Scott Strutner.

Their challenge was to design and build a competitive robot in six weeks. All teams work to create a vehicle that will be able to perform particular tasks for points.

Of particular difficulty this year was the ability to lift and place large rubber balls, and to grasp a bar 10 feet off the ground and have the robot hoist itself.

AMHS alum Phil Baltar '02 served as a mentor to the team members. Besides the robot conception and design, other tasks include recruitment, fund-raising and communications.

Overall the process of building a robot is an exercise in entrepeneurship: the students begin with an idea, generate support and follow through to a final product as a team.