Charlie Breitrose
Members of the Watertown High School robotics team – the KwarQs – spoke to the School Committee. From left, junior Nate Ryan, junior Jaslyn Jobson and coach Nic Smits.
The Watertown High School robotics team wrapped up their season, but the group continues to stay active in robotics and other ways.
The team had competitions at UMass-Dartmouth and at Northeastern this year. The team did not qualify for nationals, but that is a goal in the future, said WHS junior Nate Ryan told the School Committee last week.
The team did not go without recognition, however. The team got an award for imagery for the design of their banner, and at another competition they got the safety award, said junior Jaslyn Jobson.
“We had a safety kit, and many other teams did not have them, so we passed them out to other teams that did not have safety kits,” Jobson said.
The team has some strategies to improve, including boosting membership. The team is reaching out to Belmont and Waltham and opening up membership to them, too, Ryan said.
The KwarQs hope to arrange a partnership or sponsorship that will help them with the design of the robots.
“A lot of bigger teams have resources we don’t have access to,” Ryan said.
Some teams have affiliations with colleges, or access to a state of the art machine shop when making their robots, he said.
The last couple months of school will be busy ones for the team, but not for competitions.
“We took part in the Walk for Hunger. We all completed 20 miles and raised $1,500,” Jobson said. “We will also do the Relay for Life.”
The team also seeks sponsors, said coach Nic Smits. The biggest sponsor is BBN Technologies, which provides about 75 percent of the funding. The team also gets help from NASA, Watertown Savings Bank, the Watertown Community Foundation, United Electric Controls,, and Graphic Connections, according to the team’s website.
School Committee Chairwoman Eileen Hsu-Balzer asked whether having engineering classes at the high school would help the team. Both juniors said they would take the class.
“I definitely think it would help,” Ryan said. “I took a Lego robotics class in middle school, which is great, but I knew almost nothing coming in.”
Jobson said she also knew little coming in.
“I didn’t know that I would like problem solving – working out the kinks,” Jobson said.
Find out more about the team by going to team2423.org.