In an underwater-themed season called “Reef-Scape,” bots and humans combined forces to score “algae” for points, which effectively kicked off West Albany’s robotics team, the Team 957 SWARM, into their 23rd competitive season and one of their best debuts yet. Through SWARM’s four different but equally impactful divisions (media, mechanical, electrical and software), their bot creation efforts were rewarded in this season’s debut.                                                                                                 Freshman Dillon Pyburn is participating in his first SWARM season through the software division and recounted his contributions to the team’s progress. Prior to one of the team’s matches, Pyburn noticed an error in the bot’s wheel drive.
      “[It would] have likely had a catch on fire at some point in the match, which would have put us out and disqualified us,” Pyburn said.  However, due to his observation, the team was able to fix it in time and advance to district finals.                                                               

     Additionally, the SWARM team made good progress in their rankings including being ranked fourteen in the Pacific Northwest District. “We had our first competition this weekend, and we placed second finalists,” Pyburn said. “I think we’re on track to make it to the Pacific Northwest Championship this year, and  potentially world’s [robotics competition].” 

      Greater communication among teammates and the ability to work under strict deadlines are several of the components that contributed to the team’s recent successes. However, the SWARM team is more than just robots.                                             

“We actually collaborate with each other. We have fun, we experiment, enjoy, we socialize too—quite a bit. We get out there. We interact with the world,” Pyburn said.

After his participation in Sunrise Elementary’s “science night,” Pyburn saw the impact robotics has on the next generation. “People showed interest in robotics. But overall, it’s ‘not just sitting there and working…you’re gaining life skills that you will use for the rest of your life,’” he said.

Senior Zhaine Raymundo has been on SWARM for three years and has achieved several awards for the SWARM team.                                                                                 “So, my first full year [2023], I really wanted to push our team to get the Spirit Award, and so I handed out all of our spirit gear… made sure as many people wore them as possible,” Raymundo said, “[But] I just got out of traffic on the highway coming out of Salem to a text…saying, ‘Hey, we just got the award thanks to you’….And I started crying because I was…so happy.”

In addition, Raymundo’s position as the spokesperson of the SWARM team the following year earned the SWARM team the Engineering Innovation Award. Then, this year their team won both the Autonomous and Finalist Awards, with the latter award celebrating the SWARM team’s entry into the finals. These experiences in SWARM have been pivotal to Raymundo.

“I get to tell my story to people. I didn’t think it was something possible…in such a male dominated field, and then to have such a major role on a team. Younger me would not have believed me,” she said.

In fact, Raymundo, like Pyburn, considered SWARM a fundamental part of who she is. “I’ve fallen in love with it. I talk about it almost as much as I can. It’s just become a huge part of my life…” Raymundo said.