For this past year’s mission, the Jesuit High School Robotics team went deep under water, 40 feet to be precise.

Entering with a three year winning streak, the Jesuit Robotics team competed this past summer in the Marine Advanced Technology Education competition in the collegiate Explorer class. Going to the Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston over the summer, the Robotics team put their robot, Cuttlefish, to the test.

The team placed second overall in the competition, which was lower than they anticipated. Their score suffered from a few technical errors during their pool run. In addition, the team had to deal with the challenges associated with a change in leadership roles.

“The major challenges were getting everything back online [by] making sure we were able to take the hit and keep working at the high competition level, but I think we handled that fine,” said Research and Development Lead Matthew Kiyama ‘17, last year’s team captain.

Overall, their performance was still exceptional. They placed first in “Poster Display,” a visual showcase of the robot and its functions, and in “Technical Report,” a description of the team and its latest robot. The team also received high rankings in “Presentation.”

“The main reason why we win is just because we are so organized, and we’re really devoted to the team,” said current Team Captain Andrew Chang ‘17.

This level of dedication and effort helps the team to compete with universities from around the world.

For this year, the team looks forward to their next competition at Long Beach City College in June, and though the team feels that they have surpassed their obstacles from last year, they are still trying to improve Jesuit’s Robotics program.

“I hope to make Jesuit Robotics a bit more educational,” Andrew said. “I think it’s a lot better to really understand the fundamentals behind the things that we do. It really helps in problem solving and troubleshooting.”

The Robotics team members are confident that they have overcome their struggles from the past; they are ready to make another bid for first place.