Ethan Li ‘26

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On March 1st, 2024, our Photon engineering team. competed at the FIT (FIRST in Texas) Katy District Event in Katy, Texas. 

Photon is Spectrum’s development team, where first-year team members learn crucial skills that will develop them into future Spectrum members. 

Our Photon entrants placed 18th in qualifications but were unfortunately eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Despite this setback, the team performed much better than in previous years and there are high hopes for its future. 

“I think the team did well in autonomous mode by getting close to a four-score in one auton,” Jaidev Pathak ‘26 said. “The freshman did very well in driving and were able to rank high thanks to their driving. Also because of the coaches this year better preparing them for this event with scheduled practices.” 

A First Robotics Competition match is played by two teams, called alliances, with three teams on each alliance. Alliances are randomly assigned for each match during qualifications but are chosen during playoffs by the top seeding teams. This year’s game consists of robots collecting game pieces, called “notes,” and shooting or dropping them into certain chutes and openings, scoring points. At the end of the match, robots can climb a chain that will give them and their alliance extra points. The first fifteen seconds of each match are autonomous, meaning the robot operates without any human interaction. 

While its autonomous programs ran smoothly, the robot experienced difficulty taking in game pieces later in the competition, hindering its ability to score vital points for its alliance. This was due to its intake system’s being partially damaged. The team planned to make repairs immediately and improve the robot’s programming to ensure a more efficient intake system for the near future. 

Nevertheless, this year’s Photon group is still doing better than previous years’ because of Spectrum’s renewed focus on entry-level training.

“I think the team is doing better than ever because last year we were much more disorganized with practices for Photon, but this year the new system and better communication have greatly improved the team,” Jaidev said. “Also, a lot of older students learned more and more as well as the newer ones. I think the team will do well in the future.” 

With its dedicated coaches and older student mentors, the team looks to a bright future.