Bishop-Wisecarver, a Diamond Supplier of the FIRST® Robotics
Competition, is committed to inspiring future innovators and supporting
Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics (STEM) by sponsoring three local
teams in Northern California. In this blog, we are proud to feature President
Logan Dorsey of Heritage High School Robotics FRC Team 3470, The Patriots, located in Brentwood,
California.
A senior at Heritage High School, Logan has participated in his
school’s robotics program since his freshman year. As if this wasn’t impressive enough, Logan has
interned at Google in the video production department, and currently works on
side projects that involve programming and building robots. He aspires to
attend Yale this fall to study computer science.
Logan, without a doubt, has the talent to be a future
innovator in his field of expertise. Learn what he had to say about what it
takes to be the President of a FIRST robotics team.
Question: We understand that the FIRST program has a lot
to offer. What do you think about the program and what skills have you gained
from it?
LD: I think it’s a great and rewarding program. I have been
a part of the robotics team for four years and I’ve gained a lot of skills that
I can apply to both school and home. To name a few, I have learned to manage my
time, be patient and maintain a good worth ethic. I’ve even gained the skill
set to open my own software company.
Question: What
challenges have you run into as President of Heritage FRC Team 3470?
LD: When I was appointed as President, I didn’t realize how
challenging the position would be. I was the team’s software engineer before
taking this leadership role, so I had no idea where to start. Thankfully, I had
the guidance from our coach/mentor Mr. Pardi. He’s taught me the importance of
team work, how to manage a small team and coordinate the many processes that
needs to come together to building a robot. Mr. Pardi has encouraged my own
personal growth as well as our team’s that we had him nominated for the FIRST
Compass Award, which recognizes his outstanding guidance and support. We were
ecstatic that he won!
Question: As much
challenges your team has run into, what would you say your team’s greatest
accomplishments are this season?
LD: With scheduled restrictions and
commitments it has been very hard to get the team together, however, we’ve taken
long strides since we started this season. We’ve improved our building process
from building one part of the robot at a time to dedicating different members
of the team to sections of the robot. We’ve change an important mechanism of
our robot in three weeks and we placed 14th out of 36 teams at the
Northern California FTC Championship on February 22nd in Newark, CA.
Question: With this
being your last year, what would be your advice to your teammates?
LD: Make mistakes, learn from them and move forward.
