By Erin Hawkins

Olympic Peninsula News Group

SEQUIM — Just before the Sequim High School Robotics Club started gearing up for the FIRST Robotics Competition 2017, it received a $10,000 grant from Praxair Inc.

Brad Moore, Sequim High School teacher and Robotics Club faculty adviser, applied for the grant last fall.

The Sequim High School Robotics Club has been designing, programming and building robots to compete against high school students across the Northwest for seven years since the club’s first inception.

Moore applied for the grant through Praxair’s Global Giving Program in 2015, a program that contributed millions of dollars to provide scholarships to community colleges and technical schools for critical skills that are needed in local workforces.

The grant money will be used to cover costs associated with robotic competition. The students are allowed to spend up to $4,000 on a robot for this year’s competition, Moore said, starting March 17-19 in Mount Vernon, March 31-April 2 in Auburn and then to Cheney if the students qualify for the championships from April 5-8.

“It’s a very expensive venture to run,” Moore said. He explained that just to get the club started seven years ago, it cost $10,000.

The club has received a couple of grants from Praxair in previous years, but the amount it received this year has been the most the club has been awarded with so far.

It also has received grants from other organizations over the years such as Boeing, Pacific Northwest FIRST, OSPI and the Sequim Education Foundation in order to maintain club costs. The robotics club also raised money this year from fundraisers such as the luau and silent auction the club hosted.

Thirteen students are involved in the Robotics Club — 10 boys and three girls. Moore said last year, the team had a lot of senior students, but this year he is working with several freshmen.

“Last year, we were super senior-heavy, and this year we’re very young,” he said.

Moore tries to encourage his younger students to jump in on the designing, programming and building process, which is what the club is all about.

“I want [students] to not be afraid to make a mistake; that’s part of life,” he said.

The club also consists of several volunteer mentors, such as Sequim High School teacher Stuart Marcy, retired Boeing engineer Martin Cahoon, retired software engineer Pat Volk, retired programmers Mike Becker and Jerome Bileck, retired Navy physician Gary Henriksen, contractor/inventor Brad Griffith and teacher and Moore’s spouse, Kathy.

Every year, the FIRST Robotics Competition is different. The students and mentors have six weeks to build and construct a robot that must be able to perform a variety of tasks within certain time restrictions for robotic competition.

“The kids have to design and work with problems,” Moore said of the designing, programming and building process.

This year, the competition will feature a steampunk theme, and students must come up with not only a design for the robot but all the engineering and electronics needed to meet competition guidelines, such as building a robot that must fit into two different volumes at all times, some that are horizontal while others are more vertical.

Moore said on day one, the students decide on a strategy and will build a robot to meet that strategy.

“For me personally, the kids get to go through a real engineering process,” Moore said. “You go from nothing to a completed robot and system that can play the game.”

He explained that from start to finish, designing, programming and building the robot is a very time-consuming process.

“We’re here till 8 o’clock every night. Some of these kids put in five hours every day,” Moore said.

Riley Chase, Sequim High School senior and president of the Robotics Club, said he has put in an estimated 80 hours so far.

The big goal for the team is not just to get to the FIRST Robotics Competition championships but to get to the world championships in Houston. Last year, Moore said they were three teams away from making the world championships.

The Robotics Club officers include Chase, Vice President Riley Scott, Safety Officer Max Koonz, Treasurer Bailey Rux, Secretary Brenton Barnes, Public Relations Xavier Conway and Parliamentarian Nick Charters.

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Erin Hawkins is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at ehawkins@sequimgazette.com.

Volunteer mentor Martin Cahoon, center, shares a schematic on the laptop in the school shop with Robotics students Max Koonz, Nick Charters and Josh King, from left. (Patsene Dashiell)

Sequim High School teacher and Robotics Club faculty adviser Brad Moore shows components of one of the robots the club constructed for last year’s FIRST Robotics Competition. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Sequim High School senior and Robotics Club President Riley Chase works on the electronics board for this year’s robot that will compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition 2017. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Sequim High School senior and Robotics Club President Riley Chase works on the electronics board for this year’s robot that will compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition 2017. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

One of the robots the Sequim High School Robotics Club constructed last year to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)