I was born, raised, and still live on the Big Island of Hawaii in the city of Hilo and I am a Freshman of Hilo High School.

I went to Ha'aheo Elementary School where my mom and I started a Lego robot team in my 6th grade. We carried over into my first year at Hilo Intermediate School (HIS). In my eighth grade year, I joined the HIS Botball team, my first experience with a whole new type of robotics. During the summer of my 7th and 8th grade, I helped mentor/teach children that attended the Hilo Youth

Robotics class and in the beginning of 8th grade I taught students at Ha'aheo School robotics. It was hard balancing these extracurriculars with 3 GT (Gifted and Talented) classes in my 7th grade year and 4 in my 8th. Now I am a Freshman in HHS with 4 Honors classes and I am helping teach Hilo Union Elementary School robotics. I do not believe, though that you need to be "smart" to do robotics you just need to be committed, be motivated, and be able to work with others.

My first experience with any type of robotics was when my mom sent me to a robotics summer class called Future Flight Hawaii. It was only the summer of my fifth grade year and I really was not thrilled. To me at the time it was one week of school that overlapped my birthday. I was very upset to find that I was being made to attend. But to my surprise I loved the class! I had fun everyday of the week and I especially enjoyed when they taught us how to use and program Lego robots. That just set me off and ever since I have loved robotics and now I want to pursue a field in mechanical engineering.

I have built many robots in my life some more exciting than others. I have built robots with huge forklifts, robots with treads, and robots that even I think look pretty weird. Once I a robot that drove around using tracks shaped as a triangle. It is hard to describe some of the more complicated robots but a major accomplishment of mine was when I built an attachment for a robot. The fancy word for it is a multiplexor but basically what it did was it allowed me to use two motors and create five out puts that you attach a wheel or arm, etc.

I love both building and programming robots. After I have designed and constructed a sturdy, effective and most importantly, useful robot I gain a sense of pride and accomplishment. I am proud of what I created and that is what drives me.

I believe that within the next few years and even now the importance of the  construction and design of machines and robots will become huge. Robots whether it be your computer or car will become an everyday part of our lives and that is why we need to help this development by showing our youth how fun robotics can be and no matter your background there are ways to get involved.

To me RoboFest is a place of sharing the joy of robots and technology in general. Kids from all different schools can come together and show the potential that is within them. Last year we had people from many different companies come and show the different aspects of robotics and I thought that was great. From this students can learn the real world applications of what they spent weeks constructing and programming. Robofest is a place of learning and new experiences.

In my opinion if you have any interest at all in building or programming a robot, even if you have never touched a Lego in your life you should pursue robotics and see what it like just to get a taste of what its like. Just like when I started, I had no intention of doing anything robotics related but after one weeks with learning how to build and program I am the feature builder for Robofest. And like I said early, you do not need to be smart, as long as you are motivated and have a will o try something new you can succeed in robotics.