China, India, Turkey, Hungary, and Syria united by their love of STEM. The equations of Math, the language of Programming and the laws of Physics had fascinated each one of us 15 high school students from all across the world. Known as MUWCI Techraiders, our team consists of diverse, passionate, and innovative individuals. We have all had our own unique journey and not only does this activity bring us closer on the scientific platform while we put together the robot and our ideas, but also allows this to be a space to share our stories. Our stories and obstacles are varied as well: someone wants this to be a platform where we can prove that more women in STEM is possible;  someone wants to work for technological advancement but in a country where it has been stopped due to a war crisis; someone has been tinkering and putting things together since the age of nine and are now finding joy in teaching those on the team who have never had the chance to work before. What was the likelihood of all of us coming together and working on this robot? But here we are and in the form of our most determined selves and this is what we do.

 

Those of us who have never really been part of such a team working on such a specific and admittedly relatively complex robot, it is quite an experience to learn what all goes in in terms of effort. What better way to cultivate skills and passion while also learning to cooperate with people on different levels. In fact, it is important to mention that FTC has really provided us with the perfect opportunity to share our knowledge and develop life skills. Because building a robot from scratch is not just about brainstorming and coming up with the perfect design, it is about building team spirit, inculcating the quality of being receptive, about understanding the intricacies of funding and just also remembering to keep learning. Also with limited resources, the biggest lesson for all of us, we really had to keep on our toes and constantly improve our design till the best possible work was achieved in the given time. It also taught us the quality of being simple, Occam’s razor, for the first time became something we extensively found ourselves working back towards as on multiple occasions we started off with elaborate plans and then working towards a simpler (but not simplified) version of our work.

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We all started with personal reasons and goals when the team was first made. But now, it is far more intense, because it is a constant test of abilities where you are assessing yourself and learning to see when there are opportunities to improve. It cannot be emphasised enough as to how valuable a moral that is. It is a wholesome environment and with it a culture that those of us who are going to continue next year will be proud to pass on.