Don Lugo’s original, “The Makers club” wins first place out of 53 Southern California schools at their first ever competition in Fullerton College. Last Saturday, the club competed at the SeaPerch Challenge, sponsored by the United States navy, to compete at Fullerton college to see which team can build the best R.O.V. (remotely operated vehicle). The task was based on which robot can pick up objects underwater and place them onto different obstacles the best.

The team is comprised of ten people, who were more than proud to be placing first place at the competition. As a team effort to design the robot, everyone in the club contributed on building it and coming up with ideas to make the robot more efficient. Advisor of the makers club, Brian Engstrom, comments, “We were really excited, we weren’t expecting to win, it was such a nice surprise to hear.”

The Makers club first started as the, “Robotics club” in past years, but made it more sentimental and named it the Makers club. Mr. Engstrom got the idea from the Maker Movement, a group of people creating things with a purpose or just for fun. One of the big things Mr. Engstrom wants to emphasize on the club, is that it is based on students who genuinely like to create products for fun.

President of the Makers club, Jacob Flores, grade 12, expresses, “I was really surprised and happy on placing first, I’m definitely proud of what my team and I accomplished at our very first competition.” The Makers club meets every Thursday and Friday after school to discuss future projects the students have in mind. Mr. Engstrom plans on competing more next year, now that they know what the team is capable of doing, the ideas for the future of the makers club are endless.