Robotics meets Homecoming. An unlikely meeting of two seemingly unrelated concepts, the Wilsonville robotics team Error Code Xero now hopes to bridge that gap by bringing their applied STEM concepts to the Wilsonville High School community: A student-designed T-shirt launcher for games, competitions, and other school events.
The inaugural T-shirt launch took place at the Wilsonville High School Homecoming football game, the prime spot to promote the work of robotics students and propel student engagement in the process.
The idea for a T-shirt launcher started with robotics team member Cayden Whisman. A junior this year, Whisman explained that this project took two years to build, but his initial vision is what guided the manufacturing process: “At assemblies, I wanted to give people at the top of the stands a chance to get a T-shirt. Some…people at the top of [the] stands didn’t really get a chance.”
Whisman’s idea pushed the slow but consistent completion of a high-quality T-shirt launcher. And even though the T-shirt launcher isn’t a robot, the build process was similar to the team’s robot build approach, where students have less than two months to build a fully functioning robot to compete with teams across the Pacific Northwest.
Despite being a side project, Whisman’s fellow robotics teammates continued to help him, whether it was with designs, prototypes, testing, or building. Whisman explained that even though he’s pleased with the completion of the T-shirt launcher, the success was in “building as a team” without the restrictions and stress of the build season.
Whisman continued, saying, “It was a fun project… because you get to see how other people envision [the launcher] as well.”
On a surface level, the concept of building something with peers seems basic. However, Spirit Lead Olivia Sheng highlighted how the project brought motivation and inspired creativity for the team, especially newer members:
“Coming from someone who watched [the build process happen], I didn’t partake in a lot of the actual building [of the launcher], but I think that really gives inspiration to especially the newer students. You can make your visions a reality with your [sic] skills that you foster through robotics.”
Error Code Xero, also known as Team 1425, intended to bring that inspiration to the rest of the Wilsonville community, and at the Homecoming game, debuted the T-shirt launcher.
Between rallying their peers and promoting robotics at a public event, Olivia Sheng viewed this as a win-win, explaining, “It brings an element of engagement to the crowd… and it’s also an opportunity to do outreach for the robotics team.”
Error Code Xero’s innovation and STEM expertise shined through in the exciting debut of the T-shirt launcher, and Sheng highlighted how significant that was for the community. “It [was] a school pride moment where… we’re the school robotics team and we’re giving [Wilsonville students] the T-shirts,” said Sheng.
The elements of engagement and school spirit, combined with the student-made creation and an opportunity to advertise for the robotics team, tell a larger story. FIRST, the organization through which robotics is run, describes its overarching mission as “combining the excitement of sport with the rigor of science and technology.”
Here, FIRST is talking about robotics competitions through the lens of STEM. But what Error Code Xero did on Homecoming night was all the more significant—they took FIRST’s mission and applied it to the real world by blending the excitement of homecoming football with their STEM creation.
Sheng explained, “… you can make your ideas and visions a reality with [the] skills that you foster through robotics, and the community really supports things like that.” Whisman added, “[Robotics] is a place where you can have your dreams become a reality… There’s so many supportive people of all your ideas.”
So, the T-shirt launching event was successful for the robotics team and Wilsonville’s community. Where does Team 1425 plan to go from there?
“Any place that involves where a T-shirt can be used,” Sheng stated. “[The T-shirt launcher] is a good outreach project since it’s portable, and helps with… branding our [team’s] image. It gives everybody a chance to receive free merch, but it’s also an opportunity to do outreach for the robotics team… it gives back to the school and the community who’s there in the stands.”
Error Code Xero broke barriers on Homecoming night. By integrating sport and STEM, Team 1425 is opening the eyes of the local community to how STEM is impactful in unconventional ways.