SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – GigaBite, a high school-level FIRST Tech Challenge local community team, has just won the first place Inspire Award while competing internationally. The event hosted 48 robotics teams from 10 countries, marking a new level of achievement for the Nevada team after they recently won the Nevada State Championship Inspire Award.
Two of the team’s leading members, Connor Habicht, 17, and Arya Saini, 18, have been part of GigaBite since the team’s inception in 2021.
The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge robotics program consists of students in grades 7-12, who design, build and program a reusable robot to compete in a head-to-head challenge.
“It initially started in my garage, and there were maybe six of us,” said Habicht. “We didn’t really know what we were doing and there was no instruction manual or anything. We just, sort of, get the challenge and have to go from there.”
Fast forward six years and the team has nearly doubled in size and has garnered valuable knowledge and experience.
Each year, the theme for the challenge varies, and while last year’s theme focused on ocean exploration with their Into the Deep challenge, this year, it was centered around archaeological discovery and pattern recognition.
Guided by coaches and mentors, the teams are not only focused on the robotics aspect. Raising funds, marketing their brand and participating in community outreach is a vital part of the FIRST Tech Challenge.
For four seasons, GigaBite has been giving robot demos and teaching STEM and robotics at Lake Tahoe Community College and the Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe. They also started two LEGO robotics teams for children in grades K-8. Over the past two summers, seven of GigaBite’s members worked as STEM interns at summer camps. One team member even interned at Eco-Clean Solutions, operating BEBOT, a solar-and battery-powered, sand-sifting robot to clean up Lake Tahoe beaches.
To win the Inspire Award, a team has to be a well-rounded, top contender in a number of the other awards in the FIRST Tech Challenge, including the FIRST Leadership Award, Think Award, Connect Award, Design Award, Reach Award, Sustain Award, Control Award, and more, making GigaBite a worthy candidate.
This year was Habicht and Saini’s final season with GigaBite as both have just graduated high school and are heading off to college. Habicht will be attending Northeastern University to study mechanical engineering. Saini is going to Columbia University where she will major in neuroscience and behavior through the medical research route.
“I think Connor would agree with me when I say, this was definitely the perfect way to end our first robotics career. It really was the cherry on top, not only to win the Inspire Award at State, and then get the privilege of competing at an international level, but actually winning the Inspire Award at an international level was pretty unbelievable,” said Saini.
Coaches Jobe Pilgrim and Monique LeMay couldn’t be more proud of the GigaBite team who have been working hard for five years to earn the top prize.
“Their dedication, countless hours of designing, building, coding, practicing, fundraising, and supporting one another have led to this amazing achievement. They have represented our team, our community, and themselves with professionalism, kindness, and determination every step of the way,” LeMay said.
“It seems like everybody who has come out of the program is doing great,” Pilgrim added. “We’ve only had four other kids graduate last year and everybody’s gone into STEM and doing great in college. I’m looking forward to seeing more and more of our alumni building up and doing great things.”
To learn more about GigaBite Robotics, visit https://www.gigabiterobotics.com/. For information about the FIRST youth robotics community, visit https://www.firstinspires.org/.
