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
Hey, I’m Sam Duong, and I’m a Senior at Palo Alto High School. I am the Team Captain for Kuriosity Robotics and a founding member. My favorite things to do on the team are programming and build. Outside of robotics I enjoy playing the guitar and watching football.
Sam Duong
Team Captain
Albert Cai
Hi, I'm Albert Cai, and I'm a Senior at Palo Alto High School and the build lead for Kuriosity Robotics. I am a co-founder of Kuriosity. I enjoy all aspects of FIRST, but like building the most because it is hands-on and there are no boundaries.
Build/Design Lead
Ethan Liang
Hello, I'm Ethan Liang, a junior at Gunn High School. I am part of the programming team, and enjoy working with software quite a bit. Outside of working with the team, I like music, especially playing the piano.
Software Lead
Adithya Narayan
Hi! I'm Adithya Narayan, and I am a senior at Stanford Online High School. Aside from robotics, I enjoy talking to friends and playing tennis and chess.
Business/Outreach Lead
Arthur Balva
Hi, I’m Arthur and I’m currently a junior at Palo Alto High School. I am part of the build team and this year was my second 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.
Build/Design
Reid Dye
Hi, I’m Reid and I’m a junior at Crystal Springs Uplands School. I am on the build team. Outside of robotics, I enjoy swimming, tinkering with random things, and creating sizable and usually intentional explosions in my backyard.
Khue Do
Build/Design
Hi, I'm Khue and I'm currently a senior at Palo Alto High School. I'm 17 years old and enjoy robotics with my team. I had a lizard named Mango. Outside of robotics, I like to play tennis and eat lots of food.
Business/Software
Hi! I'm Austin, and I'm a senior at Palo Alto High School. I am currently on the build and business team and outside of robotics, I enjoy playing percussion and supporting the 49ers, Warriors, and Giants.
Austin Xiang
Business/Build
Hello, I'm Alec Petridis, a junior at Gunn High School. I am part of the programming team, and enjoy writing software. Outside of the team, I also do penetration testing and security research.
Alec Petridis
Software
Hi, I’m Hoshi and am currently a sophomore at Saint Francis High School. I'm on the business and software teams and this is my second year in FTC. Outside of robotics, I enjoy playing tennis and swimming.
Hoshita Undella
Business/Software
Hello, I’m Aidan and I’m currently a senior at Palo Alto High School. This is my first year in FTC and I am on the build team. In my spare time, I enjoy playing basketball, solving puzzles, and playing chess.
Aidan Lee
Design/Build
I’m Jason Zhang. I’m currently a freshman 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 sophomore 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 freshman at PALY. I am a part of the outreach and software team. I enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my friends.
Claire Cho
Outreach/Software
Hello, I am Daniel, a freshman 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
Lucy Ma
Business, Accountant
Tram Phan
Business Lead
Chi Tran
Former Members
Business
Build/Design
Binh-Minh Nguyen
Software
Ryan Su
