Our Story.
Seven years ago, our fledgling team graduated from the FLL arena to the FTC stadium. Despite being a team only four members strong, we came together, persevered, and quickly marked our presence and stood on the same playing field as larger veteran teams. Together, we have challenged six years of FTC tournaments, the "Bowled Over!" competition, the "Ring it Up!" competition, the "Block Party!" competition, the "Cascade Effect" competition, the "Res-Q" competition, and last year's "Velocity Vortex."
Now, in 2017, we have grown in both size and experience and are eager to leap over any obstacle in our path. We challenge each other's ideas, we identify and fix weak links, and build upon our skills in pursuit of the best robot possible.
Now, in 2017, we have grown in both size and experience and are eager to leap over any obstacle in our path. We challenge each other's ideas, we identify and fix weak links, and build upon our skills in pursuit of the best robot possible.
the team.
Shalin Shah
Hey, all! I'm Shalin Shah, 17 years old, and I'm homeschooled, including attending Stanford Online High School part time. I am a founding member of RoboKnights. I live in Fremont, and I love math (taking Partial Differential Equations), physics, genetics, and computer science. My favorite extra-curricular activities are competitive chess, piano, music composition, and of course, FTC robotics.
I built my first Lego Mindstorms robot (RCX) when I was in kindergarten, and I have loved robotics ever since. I really want to share my passion for robotics with the younger generation, teaching them not only software and mechanical design, but also intense teamwork, collaborative brainstorming, innovative problem-solving, communications, and negotiations. Beyond teaching robotics across the Bay Area - from the Tech Museum of Innovation and Maker Faire to affordable housing and homeless projects - I lead two large-scale, long-term initiatives, on behalf of RoboKnights: the Mission San Jose Elementary School FLL Robotics Initiative, and the even larger FIRST Robotics Gujarat Initiative, in Ahmedabad, India, drawing hundreds of children into this awesome "Sport of the Mind". I am so proud of this amazing team; together, we are striving to build another world-championship caliber robot this year!
I built my first Lego Mindstorms robot (RCX) when I was in kindergarten, and I have loved robotics ever since. I really want to share my passion for robotics with the younger generation, teaching them not only software and mechanical design, but also intense teamwork, collaborative brainstorming, innovative problem-solving, communications, and negotiations. Beyond teaching robotics across the Bay Area - from the Tech Museum of Innovation and Maker Faire to affordable housing and homeless projects - I lead two large-scale, long-term initiatives, on behalf of RoboKnights: the Mission San Jose Elementary School FLL Robotics Initiative, and the even larger FIRST Robotics Gujarat Initiative, in Ahmedabad, India, drawing hundreds of children into this awesome "Sport of the Mind". I am so proud of this amazing team; together, we are striving to build another world-championship caliber robot this year!
Alvin Kong
My name is Alvin, and I’m a senior at Mission San Jose High School. I enjoy everything related to robotics; however, I like hardware the most, because there are no rules or guidelines involved, which tests my creativity.
I have experience programming in many languages, including Java, Python, HTML, and C. I have been in the FIRST program for seven years now, and I was an original member of RoboKnights. I spent three years in FLL and four years in RoboKnights participating in FTC.
Some of my other achievements include receiving 1st place at the NorCal Chess Championship, and 2nd place at the National Chess Championship Division. I'm really excited for another year at RoboKnights, and I hope you will be as well!
I have experience programming in many languages, including Java, Python, HTML, and C. I have been in the FIRST program for seven years now, and I was an original member of RoboKnights. I spent three years in FLL and four years in RoboKnights participating in FTC.
Some of my other achievements include receiving 1st place at the NorCal Chess Championship, and 2nd place at the National Chess Championship Division. I'm really excited for another year at RoboKnights, and I hope you will be as well!
Eric Zhu
Hey! My name is Eric, and I am a senior at Mission San Jose High School. I'm a hardware specialist on the team. The programming languages I have worked with are C and Python. I have been in the FIRST program for five years, and I was one of the original members of RoboKnights.
FIRST is an incredible organization that helps me not only learn how to build and program robots, but also be able to connect with the people in my community. Before my four years with FTC, I competed in FLL for one year. Through these years with robotics, I have gained a lot of hands-on experience. I hope to use this to help the team have the best season yet.
Other than robotics, I have other interests such as chess and piano. I received 1st place at the NorCal Chess Championship as well as passed level 10 in the CM test for piano.
FIRST is an incredible organization that helps me not only learn how to build and program robots, but also be able to connect with the people in my community. Before my four years with FTC, I competed in FLL for one year. Through these years with robotics, I have gained a lot of hands-on experience. I hope to use this to help the team have the best season yet.
Other than robotics, I have other interests such as chess and piano. I received 1st place at the NorCal Chess Championship as well as passed level 10 in the CM test for piano.
Jeffrey lin
Hi, I am Jeffrey Lin. I am a junior attending Mission San Jose High School. This is my fourth year participating in the First Tech Challenge program. I am one of the programmers on the team, but I do have some hardware experience as well. The programming languages that I am fluent are C and Java, and I have been programming for four years. From my experiences in FIRST robotics, I have been able to develop my presentation, programming, and problem-solving skills. When I joined robotics with a couple of friends in seventh grade, I had no idea that it would have such a huge impact on my life, but I’m truly thankful for the experience! My passions include music, app-development, and of course, robotics.
heather gan
Hi, my name is Heather Gan, and I mainly focus on outreach and engineering notebook! My parents have tried getting me into STEM activities like electronics and coding since I was a little kid, but I never had much interest in that. However, I learned about robotics from my younger brother, and got involved in FTC during my sophomore year in high school. And here I am now on Roboknights! I'm probably the weirdest person on the team, and my favorite member is Chichi, Alvin's dog. Besides robotics, I enjoy playing the piano, doing sports occasionally, skipping, and carrying people on League of Legends. I'm excited for what this season has in store for us, and go RoboKnights!
TEJAS POLAKAM
Hey, I’m Tejas, and I am currently a senior at Irvington High School. This is my second season of FTC Competition, and I am excited to work with such a intelligent and talented team. I hope to go to the World Championship this year and compete with the best of the best. My hobbies are eating, playing tennis, reading books and hanging out with friends.
andey ng
What’s up!! My name is Andey Ng, and I am a 17 year old senior at Irvington High School! In my free time, I enjoy sleeping in, going on adventures, eating good food, watching chick flicks, and most of all, being around people I love! This is my third year in FTC but first year on RoboKnights. I’m looking forward to learn and bond with them and making the most of my last year in FIRST!!
Elizabeth teo
Hi, my name is Elizabeth Teo. I am a rising freshman at Mission San Jose High School. I mainly focus on doing outreach. Before FTC, I had been a part of FIRST for three years. FIRST has been a great way for me to meet new people, go new places, and learn new things. It has taught me about teamwork and reminded me that there are always ways to improve and learn. I hope to learn more from our coaches and other robotics teams.
Other than robotics, some of my other interests are volleyball, guitar, and taking coding classes. I am lucky to be on this team, and I can’t wait to see where this season takes us. Go RoboKnights!
Other than robotics, some of my other interests are volleyball, guitar, and taking coding classes. I am lucky to be on this team, and I can’t wait to see where this season takes us. Go RoboKnights!
niranjan ramamurthy
Hey, I'm Niranjan and I am a senior at Mission San Jose High School. This is my fourth year in FTC, and I look forward to a great season with the RoboKnights. I am a hardware specialist on the team, and primarily help with build and CAD.
I spent 3 years in FLL so I have been a part of the FIRST Program for 7 years now. I have experience with various programming languages like Java, Python, and C++. Outside of robotics I enjoy playing piano, guitar, and chess. I am excited for my final year in the FIRST program.
Outside of robotics I enjoy playing piano, guitar, and chess. I am excited for my final year in the FIRST program.
I spent 3 years in FLL so I have been a part of the FIRST Program for 7 years now. I have experience with various programming languages like Java, Python, and C++. Outside of robotics I enjoy playing piano, guitar, and chess. I am excited for my final year in the FIRST program.
Outside of robotics I enjoy playing piano, guitar, and chess. I am excited for my final year in the FIRST program.
zen thumparkkul
Hello! I'm Zen Thumparkkul, and I'm a senior at Mission San Jose High School. Although this is my second year participating in FIRST Tech Challenge, it is my first on Team RoboKnights! I'm excited to work on improving the team's engineering notebook, both in terms of content and aesthetics. I also hope to pick up some basics on hardware while working with the talented individuals on this team. I will also try my hardest to assist the team with their diverse outreach programs!
Outside of academics, I invest much of my time in two school publications: the Smoke Signal and Phoenix Art & Literary Magazine. I also enjoy cooking (and, of course, eating), dabbling in arts and crafts, and surfing the net for animal memes.
Outside of academics, I invest much of my time in two school publications: the Smoke Signal and Phoenix Art & Literary Magazine. I also enjoy cooking (and, of course, eating), dabbling in arts and crafts, and surfing the net for animal memes.
Alumni
Vina Kong
These past few years as part of Team 5220: RoboKnights has been a wonderful life experience. It's a pity that my time in RoboKnights has come to an end, and I will forever miss the late night meetings before competitions and heated debates over game strategies.
Most of all, I will miss my teammates and the coaches. I learned a lot through them over these past years such as how to be efficient, how to work as a team, how to never lose determination, build a winning robot (of course), and gracious professionalism. As one of the first alumni from the team, it is safe to say that I will definitely carry these values and lessons I learned with me in my future career and life.
Thanks FIRST and go Roboknights!
Most of all, I will miss my teammates and the coaches. I learned a lot through them over these past years such as how to be efficient, how to work as a team, how to never lose determination, build a winning robot (of course), and gracious professionalism. As one of the first alumni from the team, it is safe to say that I will definitely carry these values and lessons I learned with me in my future career and life.
Thanks FIRST and go Roboknights!
Joshua Chao
Hi, I'm Joshua Chao. I have been a member of the FTC community for 3 years (2012-2015), having been the team captain for Team 548: Geek Squad, for two of those years and a member of RoboKnights during my last.
I simply love anything related to programming and robotics, and spend most of my programming time tinkering around with Java, Javascript, and Objective-C. In fact, I love going to hackathons in my spare time, where I have won some titles for programming. I currently attend UC San Diego on full scholarship, and I hope to extend my skills and my passion even further there!
Thanks so much to FIRST and good luck to both my former teams.
I simply love anything related to programming and robotics, and spend most of my programming time tinkering around with Java, Javascript, and Objective-C. In fact, I love going to hackathons in my spare time, where I have won some titles for programming. I currently attend UC San Diego on full scholarship, and I hope to extend my skills and my passion even further there!
Thanks so much to FIRST and good luck to both my former teams.
Nilesh Dey
Since 4th grade, I have been part of the FIRST organization. I started out with three years of FLL before taking part in the FIRST Tech Challenge. I find FIRST to be inspiring and an overall amazing learning experience for us all. It has taught us varying things from teamwork, and team spirit, to more tangible resources like building, and programming. In general, FIRST robotics is a tool that we should all be able to use, as it helps develop knowledge, and it is definitely something I am glad is in my toolbox. I am extremely passionate about my hobbies. I love cars, computers, and the ever obvious video games. These interest me because, no matter what degree you have, no much how much wisdom you have, no matter how smart you are, you will always have something to learn. Obviously, I try as hard as I can not to learn anything from playing video games, but it’s blatant that you pick up a thing or two along the way. I am an alumnus of Mission San Jose High School and I strongly believe that we should and always should learn. There will never be a day you don’t learn something, from people’s thoughts, to opinions, to facts, there is always something to learn. This is why I joined and why I am extremely impressed with the FIRST organization and the amazing feats they have accomplished.
Samantha Teo
Hi, everyone!! I’m Samantha and I’m an alumna of MSJHS. For me, robotics has truly been a great experience throughout the years, since day one! Or actually, since 7th grade, because that’s when I started my path in the FIRST family as a rookie in FLL – FIRST Lego League. My friends and I casually joined robotics, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into... and how much robotics would change our perspectives. Fast forward to the 2015-2016 FTC RES-Q season and I find myself spending weekends devoted to learning about robotics and countless hours using STEM to inspire the youth of today. :) I have had three years of experience in FTC, five years in robotics, and many more years to come as an advocate for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics!
Derrick liu
Hey there! My name is Derrick and I am 17 years old. I recently graduated from Mission San Jose High School. I mainly work on the hardware side of the robot and provide unnecessary commentary, but I have basic knowledge of Java and C++, and I am currently working on improving those skills. My interests include golf, swimming, running, music, and playing CSGO. I was a part of FTC for two years and I hope to continue being involved in robotics even after my graduation from high school. On the journey ahead, I look forward to making ever-lasting friendships, old and new, with fellow robotics lovers!
Jonathan Chen
My name is Jonathan Chen, and I am alumnus of Mission San Jose High School.
Although my time in FIRST robotics has been limited, I have a solid foundation in math and science and am very interested to further develop my skills in this area. I am familiar with Java programming and have had some exposures to C++ programming, web design, and elementary school lego robotics.
Otherwise, I love music (having joined choir and played the piano since
kindergarten), and my favorite sport is tennis. During my last two years of high school, I was on the varsity tennis and debate teams at Mission San Jose.
Although my time in FIRST robotics has been limited, I have a solid foundation in math and science and am very interested to further develop my skills in this area. I am familiar with Java programming and have had some exposures to C++ programming, web design, and elementary school lego robotics.
Otherwise, I love music (having joined choir and played the piano since
kindergarten), and my favorite sport is tennis. During my last two years of high school, I was on the varsity tennis and debate teams at Mission San Jose.
Ajay dulai
Hi! My name is Ajay Dulai. I am an alumnus of Mission San Jose High School. I have been in the FIRST robotics programs since 6th grade. I competed in FLL for three years and in FTC for three years. On the RoboKnights I was a part of the build team. This means that I focused on all hardware aspects of FTC. I love to program in many languages such as C++ and HTML/CSS/JS. In my free time, I love to play soccer and video games. What I love about FIRST is the many different aspects of the program. Just because I was interested in hardware does not mean that everyone has to be. I know many people who joined a FIRST program to improve their organization, business, programming, and even teamwork skills.
jeffrey ni
My name is Jeffrey Ni and I am an alumnus of Mission San Jose High School. Since I was young, I have always had a love for electronics and robotics. I have participated in the FLL program for three years and in FTC for three years. I was a part of RoboKnights for a year, and I was previously on Team Infinity 5151. Regardless of team, FTC has been a vital experience for me to learn more about robotics and teamwork. I worked mainly on the hardware side of FTC robotics, but I am especially experienced in electronics and custom circuits/sensors. I also have programming experience in C/C++ and Java. I also built my own CNC machine and use it to create custom parts for the robot. Outside of robotics, I also enjoy drawing, running, and playing the video game CS:GO. I hope this season will be as successful and fun as previous ones!
our sponsors and family.
Our team's accomplishments would not have been possible if not for these generous organizations. Thank you so much.
TCAMA
joshua lu,
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BlueFire Lighting
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