Cornell Tech STEM Center: Lagbotics Team Spotlight

Lagbotics is the FTC robotics team from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and one of the few STEM-related clubs within the school. The team is made up of a diverse group of students passionate about robotics and competition. This year’s team leadership is made up of Curtis Kline and Alex Pusey. Next year, the team will be led by Baiwen Zheng and Kian Zamanzadeh.

When I joined the club in 2019 during my freshman year, I was super excited to build, code, and learn. However, when I joined, it was hard to get started on building those skills as the club was going through a massive rough patch. While the club had been in existence for 9 years, it had stayed “underground” from the beginning. To change things, we decided to publicize Lagbotics on social media and advertise with posters to raise awareness at our club fair (for the first time).

As a result, we grew from a team of 5 to nearly 20 members, allowing us to restructure our team to get competition ready for the qualifiers. These early competitions allowed us to realize what other teams were successfully doing and what we weren’t: having mentors, having a proper workshop, and putting in the time to design and build. Following these competitions, we focused our energy on these things, as well as fundraising to buy a new kit of parts. 

‍

At the NYC FIRST STEM Center at Cornell Tech, we gained access to high-quality machines, such as the 3D printers and a Laser Cutter for the first time and were able to create customized parts for our robot using a variety of tools and softwares, such as Autodesk Fusion 360!

‍

Our team was also able to work in an environment where we had had access to mentors. As a beginner to robotics, I was amazed by how many tools and machines the STEM Center had. I learned the basics of engineering by observing my team and the other teams by continuously asking questions, and actively participating in building a robot. Beyond making 3D printed parts, our team members were able to take on Autodesk Fusion 360, which offers a free education license. After watching some tutorials and having mentoring by the NYC FIRST staff, our team created CAD models of the robot we intended to build. We made our design changes on the computer first and then built the robot accordingly.

‍

Before Going to Cornell Tech:

• Due to our lack of funds, we had limited resources to use for our build. Traditionally, most funds from our school are allocated to arts-related programs.
• We tried our best to utilize our available resources efficiently, such as repurposing a cheerio box as our ramp and finding other items items such as a bus ticket and the covers of a notebook as parts. Many parts were also old and worn-out.

‍

After Going to Cornell Tech:

• The use of Autodesk Fusion 360 helped assist our robotics team with clear communication of design choices among other teammates, which helped us approach the building process in a far more clear method compared to the past. Especially since Autodesk Fusion 360 has a cloud-saving feature, sharing the design with others on Autodesk Fusion 360 allowed more flexibility, for both online design and portable work, allowing us to both CAD at home and in workshops. Building the simple base for our robot was a challenge, as we had to figure out the best approach of doing so, but with a calculated and logical design, the building process was simply just applying the idea.

‍