Having been in the FIRST arena for many years now, we obviously already have our own perspective from alumni, coach and mentor points of view. That being said, it's always great to get a totally fresh perspective of the organization and competitions. There's really no better way to accomplish this than to get it first hand from a member of a more newly formed team. Ringo from First Tech Challenge Team 12715, Robo Tux Cats, stopped by the FIRST Looks studio at ROBOTICON 2018 to let us know more about their team and their journey.

The Robo Tux Cats are a Florida team, from the Four Corners area. When we met, they were just starting their second season and, just as the year before, they were ready to jump right into the build. Prior to their rookie year, founding member Ringo had been wanting to get into robotics. After expressing his interest, his coach got the ball rolling with FIRST. And even with their small team of just four members, they were able to jump right in and get a robot ready for competition. The game for 2017 was Relic Recovery, which was a great one to get started with. They find the 2018 game, Deep Space, to be a bit more challenging but they like it a lot.

As a ninth-grader in his second year with the Robo Tux Cats, Ringo is the main programmer for the team. He also enjoys doing the photography for the team. And with such a small team, he, of course, finds himself helping with various other tasks, such as getting parts for the builders. They have a dedicated team, each with a lot of responsibilities and they are able to accomplish a lot, even though they generally only meet together once per week.

Check out Ringo's full interview to learn more about the game itself and their specific build.