Robotics Program Gets a Reboot

Members of Santa Catalina’s robotics team gathered in the bustling thrum of the competition pit area, their faces set in determination. In a recent practice session, they drove their robot headlong into a pillar, severely denting a point-scoring mechanism that shoots rings. Instead of despairing or pointing fingers, though, the students displayed an inspiring unity of purpose. With focused practicality, they removed some parts, found replacements, and were back in the arena 45 minutes later.

This display of resilience and teamwork exemplifies the spirit of Catalina’s rejuvenated robotics program. With the new school year came a new structure to the program, new coaches, an expanded lab, and a vision fixed firmly on the future.

This deeper commitment to robotics comes as the school explores ways to weave an engineering mindset into the student experience.

When Catalina robotics debuted in 2017, it was classified as a club. But it didn’t take long to realize that the time and effort involved put robotics more on par with an after-school sports team. Robotics had a season—January through March— that aligned with the FIRST Robotics Competition, and students regularly put in 15 hours a week to build and program a robot that could tackle a variety of tasks set by each year’s contest.

To be truly competitive, however, students would need more than three months to develop and practice their skills. So this year, Catalina doubled down on the varsity sport concept and offered robotics as a co-curricular option throughout the school year. The fall co-curricular was open to all students interested in learning about robotics and gaining skills. Students who then wanted to commit to the team for competition season took robotics as a co-curricular in the winter and spring. The new structure gives students who are passionate about robotics a chance to engage in it year-round.

To help the team improve its game, Santa Catalina brought in a seasonal coach in residence: veteran coach Dale Yocum, who taught robotics for nearly 20 years at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. New physics teacher Fable Moncure, who arrived with robotics experience from a previous school, also joined as a coach. The lab, which had previously shared space with maintenance staff, became a dedicated robotics and engineering space stocked with additional tools such as a cold saw and a laser cutter.

With the framework in place, students were eager to dig in. Coach Yocum comments: “They were universally dedicated. When the lab opened, they were there and they were on task.” Students learned how to use the tools, how to work with materials such as metal and plastic, and how to code. In the highly hands-on environment, there was something for everyone, with individual attention along the way. Mr. Yocum elaborates: “Robotics combines software engineering and electronics and mechanical fabrication and mechanical design and marketing and outreach and media all under one umbrella. So it has opportunities for students to get involved and enter the program wherever they’re comfortable, and then they can move around when they’re inside the program.”

At the start of competition season, the nine-member team, redubbed the C-Otters, set ambitious goals. This year’s competition was a music-themed game called Crescendo. There were a number of ways teams could score points, including by “playing notes” (inserting orange rings into three types of slots) and “getting onstage” (lifting the robot off the ground by a chain). The students decided they would try to incorporate mechanisms for these and other tasks into their robot, rather than focus on a few and specialize. One major improvement they made to the robot was shifting the way it drives, a change that introduced more maneuverability but required more complicated software—and two people to control it.

The team participated in two contests this year: the Sacramento Regional and Monterey Bay Regional competitions. The students used Sacramento as an opportunity to fine-tune their robot and gain some practice working together as a team. Co-captains Yunah Baek ’26, Suhana Dail ’26, and Selin Sakiz ’25 all described being somewhat starstruck and eager to learn. As Ned Stork, Catalina’s first director of engineering, observed: “On the way back from Sacramento, the vibe in the van was how are we going to get better? How are we going to recruit more team members? It was all very forward-thinking and optimistic.”

In the spring (post-season), students continued to tinker in preparation for next year. Where they started from scratch last fall, they now have three robots to practice with: one for driving, one for testing out new mechanisms, and one for developing software systems, such as autonomous programming.

The Sacramento experience paid off, and the team headed into Monterey with a lot of confidence. Their robot worked well, they were better at driving it, and they proved their value to other teams. Though they narrowly missed being selected for the finals, the students were proud of their progress. “One of the things I like about Catalina in general is the growth mindset of everything,” says Coach Moncure. “The fact that we didn’t win never brought them down because they were so hopped up on their improvement over themselves. … That they went in there and they scored points and they grew and they learned and they worked together, it was a really good experience.”

Moving forward, robotics will be a key component of Catalina’s engineering program, still in development. The vision for the program is to instill an engineering mindset in all students, whether they pursue a profession in the field or not. As Mr. Stork explains: “We want to build awareness about engineering and how the profession and the pursuit serves the world. It’s important for all of our students to experience the engineering design process. We certainly don’t expect everyone to become an engineer. However, the engineering mindset has some very valuable and transferable skills: leadership, communication, problem solving, perseverance, ideating, prototyping, designing, testing, learning from failure. I think all students would benefit from that.”