WHO WE ARE
We are a team of curious high schoolers located in Palo Alto, California competing in the First Tech Challenge (FTC).
SUB-TEAMS
Our team is made up of 3 sub-teams. Members on our team flow freely between projects various sub-teams are working on.
Build/Design
The Hardware Team leads the design process of the FTC competition robot.
Programming
The Programming Team is in charge of the competition robot's code. They work with on vision, odometry navigation, and more.
Business/Outreach
The Business/Outreach Team is in charge of money and outreach. This includes obtaining and applying for grants, managing our website, creating merchandise, and organizing outreach events.
SUB-TEAMS
Our team is made up of 3 sub-teams. Members on our team flow freely between projects various sub-teams are working on.
Build/Design
The Hardware Team leads the design process of the FTC competition robot.
Programming
The Programming Team is in charge of the competition robot's code. They work with on computer vision, odometry, navigation, and more.
Business/Outreach
The Business/Outreach Team is in charge of money and outreach. This includes obtaining and applying for grants, managing our website, creating merchandise, and organizing outreach events.
We believe that FTC is the ideal playground for teenagers to innovate. Kuriosity Robotics is a community team, made up of 15 members from various high schools. Working in our garage workshop, Kuriosity resembles a startup, pioneering our own values.
The essence of our philosophy, “Go Big or Go Home,” is the ambitious ground-up mentality. We bring our ambitious hardware, software, and outreach visions to life from the ground up. Ownership of the process gives us a deeper understanding of how it works.
OUR STORY
2015-2016
We started as group called the Kuriosity Coding Club, made up of cute 10-13 year old friends interested in learning programming through Lego Mindstorms.
Later in the year, we competed in our first FLL competition with the name Kuriosity Robotics, FLL Team 15521, advancing to the Norcal Peninsula Regional Championship.
2016-2017
We starting making a name for ourselves in the FLL community as we elevated our FLL competition robot to new heights. Sponsored by Google, we changed the FLL competition forever by creating the first super mechanism, sweeping all objectives on half of the field.
We were invited to the FLL North American Opens (NAO) at LegoLand, competing with some of the best teams around the world. Our robot placed 2nd. Members on our team since 2016 are still haunted by how our robot failed its last turn on its last match at the NAO, costing us the 1st place.
The 2016-2017 season was our last in the FLL competition. We are proud of how we revolutionized the FLL game and cemented our legacy as a FLL game changer. Since then, we have mentored several FLL teams.
2017-2018
We graduated from the FLL competition to the FTC competition (First Tech Challenge). Rather than using legos, FTC robots were designed out of custom parts from any material. We relocated to a team member's garage, and prepared ourselves for our rookie FTC season.
With rookie's luck, we dominated in the Norcal Qualifier events, winning all 3 of our competitions and advancing to the Norcal Regional Championship. We competed to the end, but despite our best efforts, we did not advance to the World Festival, nor did we receive any awards at the Norcal Regional.
FTC teams were also challenged to create a lasting impact on the community, so we started hosting robot demos and EV3 classes, inspiring hundreds of kids in the process. We became friends with many teams, and participated in events with them as well.
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2018-2019
In our second season as a FTC team, we matured and developed core values and goals:
We wanted to build a high performing robot. We wanted to inspire STEM into our community. We wanted to serve the underserved.
Once again, we dominated the Norcal Qualifier events and advanced to the Norcal Regional Championship. Though we still did not advance to the World Festival, our progress was indicated by winning the Control Award (recognizing robot "control", or code) at the Norcal Regionals.
We partnered with SmartGurlz, a company dedicated to inspiring girls about STEM. We hosted bi-weekly, free classes using their products (Siggys), and the Lego Mindstorms EV3 that we used in our FLL days, all across the Bay Area.
We learned industrial practices from visiting tech companies like Cepton, a LiDAR startup, and Facebook.
We also had our most successful and biggest outreach initiative at our time: we became vendors for the Facebook Take Your Kid's to Work Day event. On take your kid's to work day, members of our team spoke on the "Kid's Making Impact Panel". We also taught a EV3 class to children. Throughout the whole day, we demo-ed our robot to kids, teaching them how to drive the robot. The amount of children we impacted is uncountable.
2019-2020
In our third season as an FTC team, we built a robot that took us to new heights. We won both of the Norcal Qualifiers we attended, and advanced to the Norcal Regional Championship, setting world records along the way.
At the Norcal Regional Championship, we were undefeated both through the qualification and elimination matches, and became the Norcal Championship Winning Alliance Captain. We advanced to the World Festival for the first time! During the awards ceremony, our team captain became a Dean's List Finalist, awarded, recognizing "the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding secondary school students."
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic struck right after our regionals event, and the World Festival was cancelled.
Based on the success of the Facebook Take Your Kids to Work Day Event the year prior, we came back as vendors. We demo-ed our prior year's robot taught EV3 and SmartGurlz in scheduled classes. (Note: this was before pandemic)
Our Face Shield Initiative, amid the coronavirus pandemic, was our most impactful initiative to date. We designed our own Face Shields using our design experience and donated 5,000 face shields to underserved hospitals, businesses, and retirement homes.
To continue in inspiring STEM in our community during quarantine, we taught our first annual virtual summer camps. The camps were successful, and we made became friends with our students!
2020-2021
coming soon
2021-2022
coming soon
Story's not done yet
Current Members
Reid Dye
Hi, I’m Reid and I’m a senior at Crystal Springs Uplands School. I am the team captain! Outside of robotics, I enjoy swimming, tinkering with random things, and creating sizable and usually intentional explosions in my backyard.
Team Captain
Hi, I’m Arthur and I’m currently a senior at Palo Alto High School. I am the build/design lead, and this year is my fourth year as a member of Kuriosity after 3 years of experience in FLL. Outside of robotics, I have a passion for swimming and learning new things.
Arthur Balva
Build/Design Lead
Hello, I'm Alec Petridis, a senior at Gunn High School. I am the software lead, and I enjoy writing software. Outside of the team, I also do penetration testing and security research.
Alec Petridis
Software Lead
Hi, I’m Hoshi and I'm currently a junior at Saint Francis High School. I'm the business/outreach lead and this is my third year in FTC. Outside of robotics, I partake in varsity debate and some sports I play are waterpolo, tennis, and swimming.
Hoshita Undella
Business/Outreach Lead
Hello, I'm Jed, and I'm a sophmore at Gunn High School. I am part of the design/build team. Outside of robotics, I enjoy golfing, playing the violin, and video games.
Jed Ng
Build/Design
Hi, I'm Alli Katila-Miikkulainen and I'm a Freshman at Palo Alto High School. This is my first year in FTC and I am part of the build team. Outside of robotics, I like to run, do math, and play the oboe.
Alli Katila-Miikkulainen
Build/Design
Hi, I'm Angela, a sophomore at Gunn High School. I'm on the software team, and outside of robotics, I enjoy playing chamber music with friends and doing math.
Angela Liu
Software
Hello! I’m Vit, a sophomore at Palo Alto High School and a part of the business/outreach team. Outside of the team, I enjoy dancing, crocheting, and volunteering within the community.
Vit Do
Business/Outreach
Hi, my name is Max Cai and I am a freshman at Palo Alto High School. I enjoy math and physics. Outside of Robotics, I play the flute and participate in Science Olympiad.
Max Cai
Software
I’m Jason Zhang. I’m currently a sophomore at Leigh High and a part of the build team. Before FTC, I have done 4 years of FLL. Outside of robotics, I enjoy video editing, basketball, and coding.
Jason Zhang
Design/Build
Hello, my name is Ethan Kou and I’m a junior at Gunn High School. I enjoy coding and doing math. Outside of robotics, I like to draw, play the piano, and go to the beach.
Ethan Kou
Software
Hi, I'm Claire Cho and I am a sophomore at PALY. I am a part of the outreach and software team. I enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my friends.
Claire Cho
Build/Design
Hello, I am Daniel, a sophomore at Gunn High School. I am a member of the programming team since I believe that the realm of programming is very large and there is always something to learn. Outside of robotics, I like to play basketball, code, and socialize with my friends.
Daniel Kou
Software
Former Members
Sam Duong
Albert Cai
Ethan Liang
Team Captain
Software Lead
Adithya Narayan
Business/Outreach Lead
Build/Design Lead
Aidan Lee
Build/Design
Tram Phan
Business Lead
Chi Tran
Lucy Ma
Business, Accountant
Business
Ryan Su
Build/Design
