Thursday’s drone crew works on autonomous coding to score extra points at the next competition. In Hillhouse High School’s cafeteria, freshman Naomi Kidane huddled over a drone and adjusted its propellers while junior Luis Baez fine-tuned the code—a crucial step as the “Bulldog Brain iacs” prepare for their next robotics leap: a national competition in Tennessee. Naomi and Luis are two of a dozen students that make up Hillhouse’s newly established U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) robotics team.  They worked with their teammates for an hour after school Thursday to get in as much practice and preparation as possible before their second-ever competition.  Luis adjusted the team’s autonomous flight code so the drone would rotate 40 degrees counterclockwise instead of 41— a single-degree tweak meant to help the machine line up more precisely with its next task. The group of four students in the cafeteria Thursday worked on programming two drones to fly autonomously in a rectangular shape. They used blue painter’s tape to measure and mark out a roughly three-foot rectangle, which in turn helped with their coding for the device.  Zelena Sanchez, the team’s junior captain, and freshman Adrianeysha Carrasco offered suggestions along the way as they worked through trial-and-error attempts. One suggested changing the battery while the next pointed out that the air drafts in the room were impacting the drone’s highly sensitive sensors.  The team made the physical adjustments to the drone while Luis again adjusted the code after his teammates noticed the drone’s earlier rotation angle left it slightly misaligned from the mapped-out rectangle. Hillhouse’s Bulldog Brainiacs robotics team kicked off on Sept. 24, 2025. JROTC Sgt. Lisa Rodriguez facilitates the STEM-focused addition, along with the school’s JROTC drill, color guard, and physical fitness teams.  In another room on Thursday, the other half of the Bulldog Brainiacs worked on more coding, learning about a brand new drone, and practicing obstacles to prepare for their next competition. Thursday’s after-school practice came just weeks after the team returned from its first-ever robotics competition in Boston, where students tested their drone programming and piloting skills against teams from across the region. Four days a week, the team’s practices transform Rodriguez’s classroom into a small engineering lab where one group works on coding and refining commands while another group rotates through the roles of pilot, mechanic, navigator, and driver.  Freshmen Max Tomlin and Ellery took turns practicing with the robot’s controller as senior team captain Giovanny Mejia coached them through the controls. Their Thursday task consisted of getting more rhythmic in their movements of the robot as they directed it to lower its crane, pick up a plastic ball, then drive to a box across the room to drop the ball in.  Max joined the robotics team recently. She described the hands-on works as fun and said that the program has introduced her to new friends. Before joining, Max would wait at Hillhouse until 3 p.m. each day to be picked up to go home. Rodriguez then invited her to join the team to make better use of her time after school. “It feels really good when I can actually see that I’m helping my team. I feel really accomplished every time I’m here,” she said.  In another corner of the room, senior Harmonee Matheney and freshman Jarolin Caminero worked on sketching out the exact mechanics of the team’s two robots, helping the team out at competitions especially when parts of the robot or wires become disconnected or detached. Their blueprint in the team’s notebooks showed exactly what should be connected to what, allowing the team to work quickly to make repairs when needed.  The practice reflects a growing focus on STEM and career pathways throughout the district, and particularly at Hillhouse, as it’s spent recent years expanding its programs tied to technical careers and hands-on learning like manufacturing.  During Thursday’s practice, Giovanny looked closely at two 3D-printed figures as he worked with junior Julius Sinclair on how to program the team’s robots to autonomously pick up a ball and deliver it to the center of the room as many times as possible within one minute. This task, if accomplished, would score the team extra points at the upcoming competition.  Julius worked on a computer to create the code for the autonomous robot task. While he got down the basic moments and correct directions for the robots, he said the next task would require more space. He plans to work with the team to measure out the specific obstacle course layout to allow the team to practice with the robots in an accurately scaled space.  Julius has been pursuing his interest in robotics and coding since elementary school. Still, he said, the Hillhouse team has helped introduce him to skills like teamwork and communication. His passion started as a child when he would borrow his father’s tools to take apart his own toys. He recalled a $200 toy police car his father had gotten him that he enjoyed taking apart then putting back together.  “Working with your hands is the best to me,” he said.  Since September, Rodriguez has been teaching the team how to blend programming, mechanical troubleshooting, piloting, and teamwork. “It’s a lot of hours but a lot of fun,” she concluded.  Max practices as a co-robot driver. Hillhouse’s win in Boston robotics comp. Luis breaks down slight degree adjustments for the drone. One of two Hillhouse robots with some parts made by the school’s manufacturing students. Robot parts that students tried to explain but went over this reporter’s head. Hillhouse’s drone trying its very hardest to fly autonomously in a rectangular shape. The post “Bulldog Brainiacs” Fine-Tune Their Drones appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less