• The Palos Verdes Institute of Technology held its annual open house at the Palos Verdes High MPR room last week to showcase its many programs.
Programs for students include: Autonomous UAV, Battle Bots, Cyber patriots & capture the flag, first person view racing, First Robotics, Neighborhood electrical vehicles, RoboMagellan, Rocketry, Solar Cano, Space Program, Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle, Video Games and VEX Robots.
All these programs are a great way to get started in technology.
The Autonomous UAV group’s job is to design a drone to automatically fly a set course. This group would be good for anyone with a background in programming.
Battle Bots are controlled robots that fight until one can’t move or breaks. If you are good at building robots or controlling them this might be the class for you.
First-person view racing is when you control your drone to fly through a course. Anyone who is interested in flying drones should join this team.
First Robots is about engineering, programming and project management. After six weeks of building, you get to use it in tournaments. If you enjoy building this is for you.
The next program is neighborhood electrical vehicle. The team has been working for multiple years and now just needs to fix the suspension to get it street legal.
One member of the vehicle team told me, “We buy the parts and then program them to do whatever we want.” If you like cars, then you should think about joining this club.
RoboMagellan is about making a robotic car and programming it to automatically complete a course. Another project for programmers.
Rocketry is about designing a rocket and then competing in Team America Rocketry Challenge, which is the biggest rocketry contest. If you are interested in competing, you should join this program.
The Solar Boat is about building a canoe and racing it. This program seems extremely fun and is now focused on trying to fix the canoe’s ruined engine.
The space program flies a high-altitude balloon that records a picture of Earth. If you like learning about space, this is the program for you.
Do you like seeing underwater fish? Well, the ROV designs a robot that allows you to see underwater.
If you like playing video games, why not try building one? PVHS allows you to program a video game that you think will be interesting.
Do any of you remember vex from middle school? Well, if you do, you can continue it at PVHS. Hope some of you Sea Kings join one of these excellent programs.
