After months without a proper workspace, the Iron Panthers were granted access to a store on Broadway, which they will use to collaborate and prepare for upcoming competitions.
Sophomore and practice field manager Isha Chitetti posted on the app Nextdoor in September, explaining that Burlingame’s robotics program needed a place nearby to practice.
“Fortunately, we were emailed back by these two individuals, Julie and Dennis Carlson,” Chitetti said. “They had a space open on 1399 Broadway, and they were very kindly willing to let us use the space for about a month or two.”
The Carlsons offered the space, which used to be a grocery store, free of charge.
The Iron Panthers previously practiced in an off-campus facility that they acquired through a real estate connection. Senior and co-captain Serena Koopmans said that although it was spacious, the commute was inconvenient and often disturbed practice time.
“It was, with traffic, 20 to 30 minutes away from school, and so this really cut into our meeting time,” Koopmans said. “The thing about robotics is, time is very, very limited. We only have around a month to build a whole new robot, so every day that you’re commuting, you’re eating into practice time.”
Since the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) World Championships in May, the Iron Panthers have practiced in a space outside the D Building to prepare for upcoming competitions.
“If you look at the difference between rookie teams and less competitive teams than us and the best teams in the world, one of the big differences that we see is that all of them have their own designated practice spaces,” junior and co-captain Rain Yang said. “Most of them are sponsored by their school, and they have things in their school. And though we can’t get that yet, this is one step closer to that level of having our own space designated for that.”
Yang said that the gap in facilities compared with other teams limits the Iron Panthers’ ability to fine-tune their robot and routines before competitions. According to Koopmans, one part of practice that requires extra attention is the 15-second autonomous period, when no drivers are controlling the robots.
“When we have these practice fields with these exact locations, we can fine-tune this really, really well,” Koopmans said. “And this actually ended up, last year, making us so that we were in the top 1% I believe, of scores during this time period, because we had this practice field and we were able to tune our autonomous routine quite heavily.”
The team’s robot stands more than six feet tall and moves at high speeds, making it difficult to find a suitable on-campus space to practice. Previously, the Iron Panthers’ practice involved hours laying down the carpet, setting up field elements, and aligning AprilTags, an effort Koopmans said accumulated over the course of the school year. Koopmans also noted that without access to a full-sized field, they could encounter difficulties at competitions that might otherwise be avoidable.
“Having our own space means that we can just enter and start working immediately,” Koopmans said. ‘You don’t need to reset everything at the end, we just keep it there until we move out. That saves so much time and adds a lot of convenience.”
Although the Broadway workspace is only temporary, it will give the Iron Panthers more room to practice ahead of future competitions, such as the MadTown Throwdown on Nov. 7-8.
