The REC Foundation recently caught up with Rachel from VEX Robotics Competition Team 323G, R.I.O.T. (Robotics Is Our Thing), with Cornerstone Robotics in Greenwood, Indiana. Rachel is currently the team leader and has been a member for four years. She’s held roles on the team as a designer, builder, operator and programmer.
“The highlight of the last few seasons for me,” she said, “has been the winning the Excellence Award at the State Championship as a Middle School team and also winning the Judges Award at the VEX Robotics World Championship in 2015.”
Rachel and her team, like many others, has had its fair share of challenges. “This past weekend we had our first competition of the season and two days before the competition we had to redo most of our robot because none of it was working how we wanted it to work,” said Rachel.
“I’m really excited to see what we can accomplish this season with lots of testing and time. Especially tweaking what we have to get it to the best that we can accomplish. I’m just excited about the next two years because I have the opportunity to compete in VEX in high school and maybe in college too.”
Rachel’s not sure yet what the future holds for her and she’s keeping her options open, but thinking it might involve teaching or something to do with robotics. “I feel like if a girl wants to do robotics, she should pursue it,” she said. “I personally don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have robotics in my life!”
