(CGUHS) On Friday, May 3, the Robotics Team visited the Nissan Technical Center North America (NTCNA) in Stanfield, Arizona. NTCNA has been the major sponsor of the team since 2008. Without their support, we would not have a robotics program. Seniors Melody Limon and Elijah Ramires shared with the staff about the 4-year-long Engineering program at CGUHS and how participating in robotics competitions taught them a lot about project management. Freshman Zach Buchanan gave an overview of the FIRST Robotics Competition and shared the team’s 2020 competition robot, inviting the Nissan engineers to take a closer look. Zach continued with his portion of the presentation by introducing the Robotics Team’s current challenge, building an autonomous rover to locate and report the presence of water in desert terrain. Melody, Elijah, and junior Emily Geen presented about their involvement in SkillsUSA, in particular the Engineering Design competition. Emily presented her prototype of an Automotive Doorhandle Pathogen Mitigation System, which drew a lot of interest from the Nissan staff. Sophomore Landri Howard was up next and she discussed participating in the NASA Space Grant ASCEND Project. She shared with the staff a payload that had flown in the fall and the new payload that will fly on Saturday, May 4. Landri described what it was like, as a high school student, to present a poster session and a conference break out session at the 33rd Arizona NASA Space Grant Symposium in Tucson last month. Landri also touched on the role she and Emily played in the Arizona NASA Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. Juniors Emily Geen and Axel Carrera concluded the presentation with a demonstration and explanation of transistor based digital circuits that they have learned to design and implement this semester. One of the Nissan staff commented that what they were explaining was over his head! The visit to the facility continued with a nearly hour-long tour of the test track and the vehicle testing facilities. The students received a thrill when the driver took them along the 35° high banked curve. Back in the main building, the students toured the Instrumentation Calibration Lab. They noted that the Nissan shop didn’t look much different than Emily’s electrical assembly table back at the school. Back at CGUHS, the students began planning for the 2024-2025 school year. CTE Engineering clubs represented by these students include the CGUHS Robotics Team, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space @ CGUHS, Girls Who Code @ CGUHS, the CGUHS Near Space Research Team, SkillsUSA Engineering, and SkillsUSA Software and App Design. The students participating in the trip were Zacheriah Buchanan, Ethan Morgan, Landri Howard, Axel Carrera, Emily Geen, Aliceanna Villanueva, Elijah Ramirez, Rayne Tarmann, and Melody Limon. The Cougars are advised by John Morris, CTE Engineering/CTE Software & App Design Teacher. For more information on the club, visit www.cguhsd.org/cgRoboticsTeam.aspx.