{"id":50333,"date":"2026-01-27T15:38:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/?p=50333"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:38:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:38:04","slug":"raj-prabhu-designing-for-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/top-stories\/2026\/01\/27\/raj-prabhu-designing-for-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Raj Prabhu: Designing for competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem solving doesn\u2019t stop when the bell rings at the end of the day. For some, it continues in the robotics lab.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For sophomore Raj Prabhu, competitive robotics offers a space to turn ideas into something tangible, a machine that has to work under real pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Prabhu has been on the team since seventh grade, he has been around it for almost eight years. His older brother\u2019s involvement with the team allowed for his curiosity of robotics to grow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStarting around seventh grade is when I started actually contributing and doing my work. Through that, I became captain of the team in either eight or ninth grade,\u201d Prabhu explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Competitions are the most defining part of being on the robotics team. Every skill and innovative idea goes into one final end goal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cEvery September we\u2019re given a different game. That game could be scoring balls into a basketball hoop or maybe drawing a picture. Then, based on that game we\u2019re given in September, we have two competitions, regionals to qualify for States and then from States we qualify to Worlds,\u201d Prabhu explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

The competitions all come down to robot versus robot; the one with the highest score gets to move on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This constant problem solving and inventing isn\u2019t just a hobby for Prahbu, it\u2019s his future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think my goal is to go to college and major in mechanical engineering. That\u2019s what I want to do in my future,\u201d Prabhu stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Prabhu looks ahead to future competitions and possible careers in mechanical engineering, one thing is for sure, the lessons learned on the team will go far beyond the competitions, shaping how he handles problem solving and strategic planning in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problem solving doesn\u2019t stop when the bell rings at the end of the day. For some, it continues in the robotics lab.\u00a0 For sophomore Raj Prabhu, competitive robotics offers a space to turn ideas into something tangible, a machine that has to work under real pressure. While Prabhu has been on the team since seventh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,11],"tags":[],"staff_name":[1540],"class_list":["post-50333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-in-the-pods","category-top-stories","staff_name-erin-malley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50336,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50333\/revisions\/50336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50333"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=50333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}