The team’s season consists of two main types of competition. The earlier one, called  BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) takes place in the fall. BEST usually provides novice members of the team with their first chance to compete, said senior and team CFO David Carlock.

“It allows them to begin the engineering process without worrying about robots on a large scale,” he said.

Beyond setting aside a competition for rookies, the team provides new members with as much instruction as they need.

“When you come in as a rookie we have a bunch of introductory basic classes that you have to take in order to sort of learn robotics,” Carlock said. “That’s one of the things we say. You can come in with zero knowledge whatsoever and we will teach you everything you need to know about building an actual robot.”

Classes provided by the team include lessons on mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, the programming software CAD and public speaking.

The team’s hard work paid off earlier this semester. The Gearbox Gangstaz broke to quarterfinals at the Palmetto competition in late February and semifinals at the Peachtree competition in early March, both FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competitions.

After preliminary rounds, the Gangstaz were first seed, senior Henry Peteet said. Peteet, team captain and CFO, attributed their lack of luck in outrounds to the bad luck of the teams they paired up with.

“One of them, their shooter was broken right as we went into the elimination rounds, and the other one’s drag train and arm broke right as we went in, and so we had to switch out one of the robots with another team,” Peteet said.

The first round of finals was scored in a best two out of three manner. After winning their first match and losing their second, the third, tied round, was decided against the Gangstaz based on a teammate tripping out of bounds, said Peteet.

“That was kind of rough, but sometimes it just comes down to that,” Peteet said. ‘It’s not very satisfying when it’s a ref’s call, but that’s how it goes.”

The team is given a six week period to construct a robot prior to a competition. Different competitions have different requirements.

“After that you have to do what is called bagging and tagging, where you literally put it in a bag, put a tag on it, and if the bag is ripped or opened or the tag has been messed with you’re disqualified because you’re considered cheating for having worked on the robot outside the six week build period,” Carlock said.

Although the season is now over, the team has work left to do.

“I don’t think we’ll ever be done until the summer,” Peteet said. “Just because we have to train the new members and figure out who’s replacing all of the leaders.”

Carlock also takes the activity very seriously.

“You have to be serious and dedicated just like any other sport,” he said. “We all consider robotics to be a sport.”