Highland Finger Tightans. Photo by Sam McIntosh.

After a summer filled with town festivals and hosting camps, the Highland Robotics team The Finger Tightans have much to look forward to this school year.

Lead graphic designer for the team Samuel Smith is excited for the upcoming robotics season, “We’re busy as always. Our season’s just starting up, they announced the new game it’s called Relic Recovery. It’s wild compared to last year’s, last year’s game was child’s play compared to this one. There’s so much stuff to do. And we’ve got a really big team this year. We’ve got 16 people opposed to our normal 11, so five more people to be able to work on different projects is important. And we’re going to try to utilize them as best we can and teach them so they can continue on.”

Seven of the team members are seniors, so learning how to recruit new members will be a priority for the team. The team has gained attention from participating at Riverside’s Trekfest, Lone Tree Fall Festival, and University of Iowa’s Science Thursday. The team hosted a robotics camp, and have already signed up kids for next summer. Smith says he hopes to host multiple camps next summer to not only focus on Lego League but also to train incoming freshman for the Tech Challenge competitions. The team is working towards returning to the FIRST World Robotics Championships which they attended last spring.