Student-Run Robotics Team Heads To World Championship in St. Louis

Dozens of students spent Sunday working in a barn in Goleta on a robot they are taking to the FIRST Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri later this month.

The newly formed team is called Riviera Robotics Team 5818.

They work out of the barn for several hours each day, seven days a week.

Dos Pueblos High School students Kally Zheng, Graham Wren and Amy Dixon started the team in October 2015, after the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy retired its accomplished Team 1717, the only one in the Santa Barbara area.

“We were like, ‘Okay, let’s go try to start our own robotics team,’ ” Zheng said. “This is actually a huge feat to take on.”

Dos Pueblos High School only allowed seniors to participate. Team 5818 accepted students from all grades and other high schools.

“All of our students coming in had never participated in robotics before or ever did that stuff,” said team member Paul Wren.

With limited resources and experience, Team 5818 has made it to two regional competitions and is a contender at the World Championships.

“I think we’ve done really well. I’m really happy considering where we are working out of. We have only one machine and stuff. Really happy with how we’ve done,”
Wren said.

The students secured the barn as a work space, received some funding from Virgil Elings and got materials from local businesses.

The World Championship takes place from April 27-30.

The students are still raising money to head to St. Louis. If you’d like to donate or learn more about the team, click here.