Kaidan Blair, senior project manager (left) and Quin McClenahen, maufacturing lead (right), UHS Robotics Team.

Industry News

Umatilla High School’s robotics program thrives with support from Amazon Web Services

July 28, 2023

AWS supports the school with computers and machinery for building robots while students gain skills in science and engineering, as well as time management and communication

In an Oregon town with fewer than 10,000 residents, Umatilla High School has maintained a high-end robotics program for 12 years with the help of businesses like Amazon Web Services (AWS), which partnered with the school to provide students with the computers and machinery needed for the robots.

In January, the Umatilla School District and AWS launched a new AWS Think Big Space at UHS aimed at fostering student interest in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) subjects. Recently, AWS assisted in the purchase of a computer numerical control (CNC) machine that students use for manufacturing parts.

“The school would never have been able to afford this on their own,” said Umatilla County Commissioner John Schafer. “It’s an $80,000 machine.”

Educators know that such investments expose young people to technologies and skills that could end up having a significant impact on their personal and professional lives. But more than that, the robotics program also teaches students how to fill their specific roles while collaborating as members of closely knit teams.

Avery Gutirrez, marketing lead, UHS Robotics Team.

The team worked together to compete in April at the FIRST Robotics Competition championships in Houston. The eight-week competition season hones the skills needed to build industrial-sized robots that competed by rolling around an area arranging cones and blocks in specified configurations. Students learn to design, build and operate their own robot, as well as develop skills like time management and interpersonal communication.

The UHS robotics team appointed Avery Gutierrez, a UHS junior, as a marketing lead. Gutierrez was tasked with handling grant writing, evangelizing the program, chasing down funding and increasing the team’s name recognition.

Recent UHS graduate Kaidan Blair was the team’s design lead. Blair, who plans to attend Washington State University in the fall, worked with computer-aided design (CAD) software to help the team decide how one of the robots would look and operate before handing those specifications over to the manufacturing and quality control testing group, lean by Quin McClenahen. From there, it went to a team for final assembly.

Graduate Nestor Ochoa, who helped determine the team’s contest strategy in relation to their robot’s capabilities, said, “The thing about robotics is that I learned a lot about myself and others. My social skills have improved a lot because I used to not talk to anyone, and since I'm scouting (sussing out the capabilities of an opponent’s or partner’s robot to help develop a competition strategy), I’ve had to start talking to everyone."

Blair, who hopes to apply his robotics education in college and eventually give back to the Umatilla community in some way, agrees that robotics studies can work wonders for a student’s mindset. “It’s a thing that ties us all together,” said Blair. “In a way, it’s not kids building robots—it’s robots building kids.”