By Richard Bammer
The calendar hanging on a wall in Phil Jenschke’s crowded classroom, home of the Vacaville High “Robodogs” robotics team, tells an insistent tale, if not an inexorable fate: the reality of a project deadline.
Today there are seven days left for the 27 team members, frosh to seniors, to finish their robot for entry into two regional robotics competitions, and each passing day on the calendar has been X’d in red or blue inks for all to see.
The six-week “build season,” when students have to design, build, program, fabricate and test a working “ ’bot” for the competitions — March 26 to 28 at the University of California, Davis, and April 2 to 4 at San Jose State University — is coming to an end.