Hi Five Robotics brings a new level of excellence to the engineering climate in Grand Junction. This April, the Grand Valley’s premier robotics team, made up of 13 high school students from various educational settings across the valley, went to Worlds, the highest level of competition in a national program called First Robotics. This is the seventh year the team has competed at Worlds.
Each January, First Robotics teams receive a handbook with over 100 pages of instructions outlining that year’s specific robotic challenge. Teams then have eight weeks to design and build a robot, followed by four to eight weeks of competition. In this year’s challenge, the robot was required to pick up and shoot pool rings at a goal on the wall.
“The cool thing about the program is that there’s so much to it,” explains head coach Sergio Galindo. “There’s a business side of it, public speaking, finance, presentation, graphic design, media, and marketing. So, it’s a real-world experience, with a huge SafetyNet built in.”
Galindo started competing in robotics 21 years ago as a high school freshman in Collbran, Colorado. He studied mechanical engineering in college and has been a robotics mentor ever since. For a season, he drove students from Grand Junction to Collbran every day to give them an opportunity in robotics. He started asking himself, “why not start a team here?” which led to the formation of Grand Junction’s Hi Five Robotics club.
First Robotics offers multiple levels of entry starting with the elementary-aged First Lego League Discover, followed by First Lego League Explore (the first of four tiers offered here in the valley), then First Lego League Challenge, where students build Lego robots that compete on a table. First Tech Challenge comes next, where students build small metal robots. Last, but not least, comes First Robotic Challenge (FRC) where the designed and constructed robots are 150 pounds and four feet tall.
“FRC is an all-encompassing, diverse program,” says Jason Bogart, who coaches Hi Five Robotics alongside Galindo. “It’s the only program I’m aware of where you start with a challenge, take it all the way through an engineering process, and then go out and compete. It’s a valuable experience.”
Bogart has been coaching Hi Five Robotics since 2018. He originally started attending competitions when his nephew was on the team. “I’m here because this is a program I saw making a difference and I believe in it,” says Bogart. “Sometimes the kids find something they love that surprises them.” He illustrates this with a story: “We had a student come to us a few years ago only interested in presentations. She was on speech and debate team, and was fantastic at that, but also picked up a skill in electrical wiring and now she’s studying electrical engineering at Colorado School of Mines.”
Success stories such as this aren’t uncommon for graduates of Hi Fives Robotics. In eleven years since its inception, the rate of students who go on for higher education after finishing their senior year with Hi Fives is very close to 100 percent. Some former students are now business owners; others have gone on to ivy league schools. One former student is a software developer with Amazon, and last year another student won a full ride college scholarship through First Robotics. “I don’t remember ever graduating a student from our program with any thought that they’d have trouble succeeding in life,” Bogart comments. “They’re all smart, good kids who learn to work with all kinds of people. It’s a job before they have a job.”
Dallas Randall, coach of the First Tech robotics team, has a gift for technical thinking and has volunteered with robotics since graduating high school in 2013. He appreciates First Robotics because of the sense of community it offers. “I like it because it’s fun; it’s what I did in high school and it’s nice to promote that and give students something safe to do.”
Over the years, these volunteer coaches, have watched students uninterested in robotics find viable spots on the team. For example, some students have focused their energy on designing logos, t-shirts, and the club website. Others have concentrated on finances and built business plans, handled team bookings, and managed fiscal logistics. “Most of the kids we get are not sports kids. But when they join this, they realize it is a sport—just a different kind. They get a sense of belonging,” Galindo states.
Hi Five Robotics considers the Business Incubator Center one of their biggest sponsors because they donate meeting space, a huge on-site metal shop, and access to tools the teams wouldn’t have had otherwise. “We don’t exist without the Business Incubator,” says Bogart matter-of-factly. “It takes a huge amount of patience and tolerance to house this many high school kids at all hours of the day and night. The Incubator has been nothing but supportive.” Galindo agrees, “It’s been amazing to partner up with them. They’ve been more than accommodating for whatever we need.”
Working with the Business Incubator Center and the Economic Development Council, Hi Five Robotics continues to have conversations with local engineering-based businesses about the possibility of creating internship opportunities in the future. “What we’re really trying to push towards, is seeing more engineering jobs available in Grand Junction,” Bogart explains. “Right now, it’s kind of a brain drain for us. We send a lot of kids off to college, and almost none of them come back. We’re trying to build it from the bottom up so we can have a pipeline of students coming up and hopefully get a self-sustaining cycle going. I think that’s what it’s going to take to keep our valley thriving and growing in the future.”
With this goal in mind, Hi Five Robotics will continue to build not only robots, but work ethic, character, and dedication in their students. “A successful program really does encourage people to try hard,” says Bogart. “Sergio especially has always pushed the competitive side which brings a lot of value. Our students want to be part of a winning team—everybody does! So, we keep striving to win.”
Do you have a student interested in joining Hi Fives? You can contact Jason Bogart, coach and mentor, at contact@hi5robotics.com or visit their website to learn more: www.hi5robotics.com.