During lunch, many robotics students sit together. This tight knit group often discusses what a new part of their robot will need to do, and how they will make it happen. Among them is Ruby Foster, the captain of her robotics team.

Foster is not only the captain of one of the robotics teams, she is also the coding lead. This means she manages the general construction of the robot and keeps the programmers informed on what needs to be changed or added. She has been on the robotics team since freshman year.

The robotics team has various positions. People specialize in different tasks to help build the robot.

“We have builders who build their robot, design it, trial and error. We have coders who code it, trial and error, more trial and error, to make the robot move.”

Foster also mentions that though the competition is competitive the judges try to keep everything light and fun.

“There is a whole bunch of awards and they’re all scored differently. So there’s Inspire which is the overall first place. They don’t call it first place though. There’s Control which is how good your programming is. There’s Building Awards. There’s Outreach Awards which is how nice you are to other people.”

As the team leader and major advocate for the class, Foster always encourages more people to join robotics. 

“We need people who are okay with just learning stuff and being okay with being really bad at something for a little while… before they get good at it.”

Foster strongly encourages people to take the class.

“It’s so much fun and it’s not like you are constantly working on robotics the whole time, but you find something you like in the program and you do that, and you don’t have to do anything else.”