SHREWSBURY – Community members had the chance to get up and close with the FIRST Robotics Team 467 Center of Mass robot at an open house at Shrewsbury High School in early November.
According to Shrewsbury High School senior and Team Lead Akhil Rao Narahari, the open house is a chance for the team to show the community, families and sponsors its robot.
Narahari has been on the team for four years.
“This team has really taught me a lot in terms of hard skills and soft skills. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be part of this team,” he said.
Senior Sarah Harney has been on the team for three years and is the lead for manufacturing. As part of the team, Harney has been able to learn more about the STEM field. As a result, she’s planning on studying biomedical engineering in college.
“I really love the team. I’ve made so many amazing friends, and I’ve had so many great experiences,” she said.
The open house also featured demonstrations of the team’s robot, tours, FIRST LEGO League table and a station where kids could make buttons.
“We’re doing as much as possible to not only inspire the families of our team members, but also children. You see there’s quite a few children here, as well. We want to get them inspired about STEM because that is the future of this world,” said Narahari.
As part of its work, Shrewsbury Robotics holds presentations in the elementary schools. Team 467 learns a lot during the program and while building the robots, including skills like machinery, programming, soldering, electrical, inclusivity and communication.
“We’re learning that, but we also want to spread that to the younger kids as well because it also inspires them to come to this team later and learn STEM at a higher level,” said Narahari.
Team member Sid Gowtham said the team is one of his favorite things to do.
“I make a lot of friends here. It’s really fun. We learn a lot, and it’s something that you can apply in your life,” he said.
