The decision that our group collectively made was quite a success, there were a few problems regarding the kit but all were solved without much issue, the final ‘Sumo Robots’ which we produced were properly functioning and allowed us to ‘battle’ against one another; we were able to continue the project and achieve the goals of the activity, albeit with less of a challenge. Though I was not able to learn as much as I hoped due to the change of plans, through this activity I was able to gain some basic knowledge about coding and robotics, this caused me to gain further interest in these field. In the future, I hope to participate in more activities which can give me opportunities to learn more coding.

In ‘Sumo Robotics’, as a whole group, our progress has been rather shaky, despite having veteran coders in our circle in addition to the collaborative efforts of all the members, we have come across many problems that have hindered our activity, ranging from hardware faults in components to software issues in the code. Due to the reoccurring problem, most of us had lost the motivation to stay on task during the activity sessions. However, we did not want to quit the activity due to our personal interest, thus some of us came together and collectively brainstormed projects/new methods (LO3) of which we could use to substitute our current project whilst keeping the main goal in mind, suggesting ideas and building upon other peoples proposals. We settled upon restarting the project, however, this time we will use manufactured ‘Sumo Robotics’ kits in order to avoid the main hardware issues. We had initially lost hope in the project as no one was able to produce a working product, but we continued the activity (LO4), even though we found it very difficult to make the original product, we wanted to preserve the original idea so we all gathered to discuss how we could retain this while still keeping it as a challenge. Hopefully we are able to continue this club without the plague of issues which we experienced previously.

So far, I am enjoying my selected activities and service. In my activity, ‘Sumo Robotics’ I have been able to learn basic coding and gain an understanding of mechatronics, a new skill which I had no knowledge of beforehand. My participation in this activity has also allowed me to display LO5, as because of the nature of the club (being heavily student-run), students with prior knowledge would all share their experiences and assist the new members, whenever I or anyone else encountered an issue, we would work collaboratively to resolve it. This reminded me of the importance of collaboration, especially in a learning environment. My interest in this activity stems from my aspiration for a career in the field of engineering or technology, thus if in any case in the future that I begin to lose motivation in this activity, or find it too difficult, I will persevere and continue to commit as the skills I learn may become an important asset for my future. By the end of the activity, I hope to have developed my coding skills to the extent where I will be able to apply it to my own projects.