From a birds-eye view (or, perhaps more fittingly, a drone’s perspective) the FIRST Robotics World Championships — put on by the dominating non-profit program for high school robotics teams across the country — looks like Mario Kart’s rainbow raceway on steroids. Teams from all over the world swarm the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, separated from their competitors only by the bright reds and blues and oranges of their team colors. But in the midst of it all flashes one team clad only in black: Summit High School’s very own undercover technology titan, 5468 Chaos Theory.
Our wildly successful robotics team made it onto the world stage just over a year ago, and yet the program’s presence has gone largely unacknowledged in the Storm community. And while the team’s coding is impeccable, they are not at fault for the inadvertent encryption of their club within our community. Summit culture’s tendency towards stereotyping students as nerds and geeks is to blame.
So let’s turn the spotlight towards their underappreciated work.
After an outstanding performance at the district qualifiers last year, Chaos Theory found themselves on the global stage, along with approximately 500 other teams. The teams were split up into eight competition brackets, and as the games began, winning teams made their way into more concentrated competitions before a final winner was crowned.
“It was absolutely insane. There [were] around 25 teams per competition [and] each team [had] about 60 people on it with parents and mentors and team members,” described Emily Kraybill, a Summit senior and Chaos Theory’s business lead. “[If you] take eight of those competitions and line them up side by side you have Worlds.”
Chaos Theory was put into an exceptionally difficult bracket, alongside the first, second, fourth and fifth seated teams in the world. Given this, it was a momentous accomplishment when they made it into the quarterfinals of their bracket. To top it off, they were awarded the Quality Award, given to the team with the most consistently reliable and durable robot.
“At the start of the year, we had decided to really focus on reliability because it was something the team had struggled with in the past,” Kraybill explained. “To see that goal come to fruition at such a high level was really amazing.”
Competing on a global platform was definitely the highlight of the team’s season last year, but it was not the only goal they met. Chaos Theory also won the Digital Animation Award last year for their video submission, an award given to only one of approximately 3,800 teams worldwide.
While their winning streak is impressive, Chaos Theory has more to offer than just success. Their mission is to create a safe space for students interested in STEM to explore the world of robotics through a competitive and team-oriented community. While sports dominate the competition circles at Summit, the robotics team aims to show that the tenacious mindset of a soccer player or football player can be applied just as seamlessly to robotic engineering.
“We want to inspire people to try new things and especially to try hard things,” said Kraybill. “We want to give our members the skills and knowledge that they need to excel in college and the world beyond.”
The momentum from Worlds has carried the team into their current season. In their first competition of the year, Chaos Theory took a sweeping first place win with their newest robot, Arrakis. Named after the sandy planet in Frank Herbert’s “Dune” universe, Arrakis was made to be reliable, with precision shots and an extendable intake arm that folds into the robot when it is not in use.
Each year, FIRST Robotics introduces a new nation-wide game for the season. This year, the theme for the game is archaeology, as FIRST Robotics hopes to reveal a glimpse into the past of ancient artifacts and sandy dunes.
For Chaos Theory’s robot to be successful this year, there are two main tasks it must complete. First, the robot must be able to throw balls into a chest in the middle — referred to as the active hub — attempting to fill it as much as possible. Second, the robot must be able to lift itself up a ladder, gaining additional points depending on how high it is able to reach.
However, only half the battle is what the robot can do. The first 20 seconds of each match is dictated by what the robot can accomplish in autonomous control, but after that, human drivers take the reins.
On Chaos Theory, Marcel Walder, a sophomore at Summit High School, is the main driver of Arrakis, with senior Aidan Goldman and sophomore Mike Dake acting as the driving coaches. Using only a repurposed Xbox controller to drive the robot, the three of them spend hours on preparation and practice in order for them to be competition ready.
“When I’m on the field, it’s not my first time driving [the robot],” Walder said. “We have a pre-accelerated build schedule so we have a lot of time to actually practice with the robot [and] fine tune all of the controls.”
With the team’s success leveling up each year, Chaos Theory is hoping their growth will match it. Kraybill encourages any and all students to join a training session, and she made it clear that no prior experience is needed to be a part of the team.
“Pretty much any kind of person that enjoys creating things or learning skills you wouldn’t normally get in school [would enjoy robotics],” said Kraybill. “If you show any amount of interest and show up that’s who we are looking for.”
Kraybill herself has been specifically focused on recruiting more female members to the team because currently the team is primarily male-dominated. This comes mostly from ingrained sexism against women and girls in STEM fields, and Kraybill hopes that can change.
In the meantime, Chaos Theory will continue to stand proud as an example of how robotics can be both a competitively fueled activity and a committed community. So far, they are already ranked first on the Pacific Northwest stage so there is little doubt that when they make their next appearance at Worlds, Chaos Theory will be ready to harness the chaos and turn it into their next great win.
