East Palo Alto robotics team headed to world championship in Houston
EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. - An East Palo Alto robotics team is headed to Houston, TX to take part in the world championship competition. The Hope Horizon East Palo Alto ChurroBots are a community-based team, with over a dozen students from different area high schools.
Steve Jobs, who created Apple, got his start in a garage just like the one where the ChurroBots work. Now the team is hoping to take some of that same Silicon Valley spark to the robotics world championship.
Students from 10 different high schools meet at this East Palo Alto garage to create, innovate, and compete in robotics. Coach Matt Pizzimenti created this workshop in his garage for students to design and create robots over a six-week period.
"So, I did this when I was in high school, and it changed my life. My mentors were super dedicated, and I think just kind of set a particular standard for me," said Pizzimenti.
Pizzimenti helped form the ChurroBots in 2019 and now, after just five years of learning and perfecting those techniques, the ChurroBots are preparing to compete in the world championship for the first time.
"Being able to connect with people from all over the country and especially from all over the world, and having this amazing opportunity, I feel it’s going to be really beneficial not only for me but for our whole team," said Chris Almazan-Razo, ChurroBots Vice Captain.
To qualify for the championship, the ChurroBots were a part of a winning alliance at the FIRST Robotics Competition, Silicon Valley Regional last weekend. Team member Kevin Mendoza Hernandez says he’s always been interested in building things, and he started honing those skills in middle school with the FIRST Lego League.
Featured
Oakland teacher is raising money to bring 'phenomenal' 5th graders to speak at a conference in Philadelphia
An East Oakland teacher wants to bring 13 "phenomenal" fifth graders to Philadelphia, where they've been selected to present their research at an education conference. For many of the kids, it would be the first time leaving California or even the first time on a plane.
"I loved playing with Legos. So, from Legos, I moved on to the actual F.L.L. team, which is in the Hope Horizon building. So that got me more into robotics," said Mendoza Hernandez.
The ChurroBots have now started a fundraising campaign to raise $40,000 to ship equipment, registration fees and travel expenses to take over 20 team members and coaches to the championship.
"We’re hoping that this brings some exposure to the team too. Not just getting the kids to Houston this year, but in future years, having ongoing sponsors, who want to be a part of seeing this team grow and do this every year," said Pizzimenti.
The ChurroBots will be heading to the championship the week of April 17 and for more information about you can help them get there, click this link: Horizon Campaign.