The Team
Who We Are
Presentation Invasion, or FRC Team 2135, is based at Presentation High School, a single-sex Catholic school for young women in San Jose, CA. Founded in 2006, our team has grown from a handful of students to more than 30 active members that participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition. We are an all-girls team dedicated to creating a safe and comfortable environment for our membezrs to learn about STEM-related fields while building robotics skills.
Through designing, manufacturing and programming robots, Team 2135 is actively involved in shaping the female engineers of tomorrow through inspiration and innovation. Our members are part of both a club and competitive team; each member has a different level of experience and commitment. We meet all year, though many come during the fall and winter. Our team has dedicated working space in the Jenvey house garage across the street from our school. Our machines and tools include a CNC Mill, CNC Table Router, Lathe, and sheet metal brake among many other shop features that students learn to operate and use.

Team Mission
As an all-girls team, we focus on inspiring young women to pursue fields relating to STEM. By giving them a chance to try real-world engineering through building robots and solving problems as a team, we foster and develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence in these young women. Our goal is to have our members become well-versed in various aspects as they work together to build and design their robot.
Team History
2023 - CHARGED UP
With a 9 student leadership team led by co-Captains Anisha Shukla and Vinati Pillutla, the team jumped into building our new robot, Slink. At Central Valley Regional in Fresno, although we got a slow start, we improved with each match. We were selected by the 2nd seeded alliance, captained by Team 8048 - Churobots, with Team 5940 - BREAD. In the double elimination Playoffs, we played hard and made it to Round 4, Match 12. We won the Team Sustainability Award which celebrates the team that has developed a sustainable program. The team nominated Anisha and Vinati for the Dean's List Award, and Anisha was selected as a Dean's List Finalist!
At the Monterey Bay Regional, we were picked by the 6th seeded alliance captain, Team 5026 - Iron Panthers, along with Team 670 - Homestead Robotics. The alliance worked well together, playing some very exciting matches to Round 5, Match 13, losing to the 2nd seed and narrowly missing the Finals.
Robot Name: Slink


2022 - RAPID REACT
The team worked hard to design and build our robot, Festus. We also added a new web-app to easily access and analyze the data collected using the Android scouting app. We had some success at the two regionals we attended in March. At the Ventura County Regional, we finished Quals in 4th place, and were the 3rd seeded alliance captain in the playoffs, choosing Team 3512 - Spartatroniks and Team 2637 - Phantom Catz for our alliance partners. We pushed to defeat the 2nd seeded alliance to make it into the finals, finishing as regional Finalists! The team was also awarded the Industrial Design Award. Plus we qualified to attend the FRC Championship in Houston in mid-April!
At the Monterey Bay Regional, we were ranked 6th after Quals, and were picked by the 2nd seeded alliance captain, Team 5104 - Breaker Bots, along with Team 7528 - Nuts and Bolts. We fought to make it into the finals to play against the 2 top ranked teams, and again finished as Finalists. The team worked hard, gained more good competition experience, and really had fun.
The team took 18 students to Houston to compete at the FRC World Championships in April, playing in the Hopper division. We overcame some climber issues and had some strong matches, finishing Quals in 44th place out of 75 teams. We learned so much, met people from all over the world, and had so much fun!
During the off-season, the team competed at Capital City Classic and MadTown Throwdown. At CCC, the team ended quals in 4th place, winning nine out of ten matches. We captained the 3rd seeded alliance, choosing Team 5817 - Uni-Rex, Team 5700 - SOTA Cyberdragons, and Team 6918 - Napa Cellar Rats, and made it to the semifinals. We won the Excellence in Engineering Award! At MadTown Throwdown in Madera, CA, the team ended quals in 11th place out of 46 teams. We were picked by Team 5104 - BreakerBots, the captain of the 7th seeded alliance, and played alongside Team 5817 - Uni-Rex and Team 3859 - Wolfpack Robotics.
Robot Name: Festus


Fall 2021 - INFINITE RECHARGE (reprised)
Back in-person once again! To get some robot building experience, we designed and built a new robot, Grogu, for off-season competition. The team competed at CalGames and Chezy Champs, our first competitions in over 2 years! We used the new Android scouting app that was developed when we met remotely, which automatically transferred the gathered match robot data to a spreadsheet that the team used to help devise match strategy, and to create a pick-list for Alliance Selection. At CalGames, we finished Quals ranked in 1st place! As captain of the 1st seeded alliance, we chose Team 1868 - Space Cookies and Team 6059 - System Overload Robotics, which was later replaced due to mechanical issues with Team 840 - Aragon Robotics. We were undefeated in the Elimination Round to become event Winners! We also won the System Design Award.
At Chezy Champs, we were picked by the 7th seeded alliance, captained by Team 3476 - Code Orange (from Irvine, CA), with Team 6328 - Mechanical Advantage (from Littleton, MA) and Team 115 - MVRT (from Cupertino, CA). The alliance played in the quarterfinals.
Robot Name: Grogu


2020-2021
This school year was entirely remote due to the COVID19 lockdown, but the team kept busy, meeting on Zoom. The leadership team, led by co-Captains
Jadelynn Dao and Isabella Correa, led work on several projects that kept us involved in robotics and kept us connected. These projects will
benefit the team for years to come, such as a new T-shirt shooting robot, a superpit, new driver station console, and software improvements.
The team gained 11 new members in the fall, bringing our team total membership to 40. As a way to give these new members some of the hands-on,
competitive experiences that are normally available when on site, the team kicked off a VexIQ-based robot challenge called The Presentation
Cup. Every 3-4 weeks a new mini-game challenge was designed by 4 veteran team members. For each game, each student built their robot to address that
particular challenge, then submitted a video of the robot completing the game for judging. There were 4 total challenges held from January through
March. The students collaborated together in twice-weekly Zoom meetings as they prepared their robots for the challenges, asking questions and
helping each other work through issues. In May, they were able to hold an in-person tournament where 7 students competed with their VexIQ
robots.
The veteran subteam members worked in earnest to complete the new T-shirt shooter and superpit, start an off-season robot, and get the robot software running in desktop simulation mode. The simulation work was incredibly useful in allowing software development to continue remotely while demonstrating that it worked correctly while following an arbitrary field path. The team is well prepared to start building all of these new projects as the shop re-opens. In addition, the team nominated juniors Christine Yang and Shweta Arun for the Dean's List Award, and Shweta advanced to become a Dean’s List Finalist!

2020 - INFINITE RECHARGE
With the new year, the team size grew to 64 members, and the leadership team grew to 14 members. This growth allowed for deeper development of subteams, with the Mechanical Design subteam and the Control Systems and Programming subteam both growing to 9 students each. For the 2020 Star Wars-themed challenge, Infinite Recharge, the team designed, manufactured, assembled and programmed their new robot, Mandi, named for the Star Wars Mandalorian. The team planned to compete at both Central Valley and Monterey Bay Regionals. Unfortunately the Coronavirus lock-down interrupted those plans, and the events were cancelled.
Robot Name: Mandi


2019 - DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE
The leadership team grew to 12 students to accommodate the continuing increase in team membership, now up to 55 students. Led by co-Captains
Anjali Sinha and Samantha Yang, the leadership team worked hard to keep the team organized and focused to build their new robot, Nebula, for
the Deep Space game. At Central Valley Regional in Fresno, CA, the team was chosen as first pick by the 6th seeded alliance, Team 5461 - V.E.R.N.,
with Team 766 - M.A. Bears, and played through the quarter-finals. The team also earned the Spirit Award! At Silicon Valley
Regional in San Jose, CA, the team achieved a rank of 24 out of 59 teams. Additionally, Safety Captain Neha Rachapudi (Class of 2021) was named
Safety Star of the Day by Underwriters Laboratories at both competitions!
During the off-season, the team competed at Capital City Classic and MadTown Throwdown. At CCC, the team gained valuable experience in competition
roles and also attended workshops. At MadTown Throwdown in Madera, CA, the team, bringing both Nebula and practice robot Bebula, persevered through
mechanical and connectivity issues, and ultimately reached the playoffs. Team 1662 - Raptor Force Engineering chose Nebula, along with Team 254B -
The Cheesy Poofs and Team 5104B - BreakerBots, to be on the 5th seeded alliance. The alliance played through the quarter-finals.
Robot Name: Nebula


2018 - POWER UP
The team nearly doubled in size for the 2018 season, to 51 students. The team leaders Alyssa Ungerer (Class of 2018), Arshia Sharma (Class of 2018),
Anjali Sinha (Class of 2019), and Samantha Yang (Class of 2019) developed more organized training to accommodate the increase.
They worked hard to successfully keep the team moving forward and staying on track throughout the year. They built our new robot, Felix, for the
Power Up game. Twentyfour team members traveled to Flagstaff, AZ for the Arizona North Regional in March. The team nominated 2 members for the
Dean’s List Award: Anjali Sinha and Samantha Yang. Anjali was selected as a Dean's List Finalist! Then they
competed at Silicon Valley Regional in San Jose, CA, where the team ranked 13th at the end of the Qualification Round. They were
chosen to be on the 3rd seeded alliance with Team 6418 - The Missfits and Team 8 - Paly Robotics, and played through the semi-finals.
In April, we took our Dean’s List Finaist and a few other members to the FIRST FRC World Championships in Houston, where they
volunteered, helping in various areas, including helping to build the Einstein field. They also were able to attend several workshops and the Volunteer
Dinner, featuring Woodie Flowers as speaker.
In the fall, the team brought Felix to compete at Capital City Classic, where team members attended seminars and gained competition experience,
reaching the semi-finals. Then the team brought Felix and our practice robot, Belix, to compete at MadTown Throwdown in Madera. Belix played through
the quarter-finals, and Felix through the semi-finals.
Robot Name: Felix


2017 - STEAMWORKS
The 2017 season was a very successful year for Team 2135! Led by a leadership team consisting of Arshia Sharma (Class of 2018), Alyssa Ungerer (Class of 2018),
Anjali Sinha (Class of 2019), and Samantha Yang (Class of 2019), the team of 30 students worked hard to analyze game strategy, design, and
build our robot for the Steamworks games. The robot was named Crush, after the turtle in Finding Nemo. We competed at Central Valley Regional where we
were selected to be part of the 2nd seeded alliance with Team 1678 - Citrus Circuits and Team 1323 - MadTown Robotics. Together
we worked hard and won the regional event. Later, at Silicon Valley Regional, Team 2135 continued to perform
well and was a finalist for the Safety Award. As the Regional Winners at CVR, we qualified for the
FIRST World Championships in Houston, Texas. In April, the team took a group of twenty students to the FRC
Houston Championship where we competed in the Galileo Division. This was a tremendous opportunity to compete at the Championship, attend workshops,
and meet teams from around the world.
The team competed at 3 off-season competitions in the fall, using the Steamworks robot, Crush. At Chezy Champs, the team finished with a ranking of
17th. They were chosen by the 5th seeded alliance, captained by Team 973 - Greybots, with Team 1538 - The Holy Cows, and Team 604 - Quixilver and competed
through an exciting 3rd match in the semi-finals. At Capital City Classic, the focus was on gaining experience in new roles; the team competed with a rookie
drive team and other lead positions. At MadTown ThrowDown, the team ran two robots, Crush and the practice robot, Brush. Both robots were chosen to play in
the Elimination Round, with Crush playing through the semi-finals.
Robot Name: Crush


2016 - STRONGHOLD
The 2016 season was intense and exciting and marked Team 2135’s 10th season. Co-presidents Liana Rix (Class of 2016) and Chris Dhayanand (Class of 2016)
led the team of roughly thirty students. With their robot named Maximus the Stronghold (Max),
the team competed at Central Valley Regional and was chosen for the 2nd seeded alliance by Team 5137 - Iron Kodiaks and Team 973
- GreyBots, playing in the semi-finals. The team also competed at the Silicon Valley Regional, and even after breaking the
intake arm twice, they were able to pull all their knowledge and resources together to repair and fix it in time for the
following matches.
Off-season competitions were equally as exciting. At Chezy Champs, Team 2135 was selected by the first-seeded alliance and joined with Team 1678 - Citrus
Circuits, Team 971 - Spartan Robotics, and Team 604 - Quixilver. Together, we played some intense matches and ended up victorious as the Chezy Champions!
At MadTown Throwdown, we competed with Max and Baymax. Max was the 8th seeded alliance captain, and Baymax was chosen for the 3rd seeded alliance. Both went
to quarter-finals, and Baymax advanced to the semi-finals. Team 2135 also won the WOW Factor Award for simple, elegant, and efficient design.
Robot Name: Max (Maximus the Stronghold)


2015 - RECYCLE RUSH
The 2015 season was played with Team 2135’s robot named Archie and was led by co-presidents April Mullins (Class of 2015)
and Neha Tibrewal (Class of 2015). Competing at the Sacramento Regional, SVR, and at the off-season Chezy Champs Competition,
the team worked hard and gained much experience.
At the off-season MadTown Throwdown competition, playing the 2014 game Aerial
Assist with Atlas and Batlas, the team did very well. Atlas was the 5th seeded alliance captain with Team 973C - GreyBots and
Team 5817 - Uni-Rex. Batlas was chosen for the 6th seeded alliance by Team 3482 - Westmont HS Arrowbotics and Team 604
- Quixilver. Both were quarter-finalists, and Team 2135 won the Gracious Professionalism Award.
Robot Name: Archie


2014 - AERIAL ASSIST
The 2014 season was a remarkable year for Team 2135. Led by Kiruthika Shanmugam (Class of 2014), the team had 18 members. After working hard on
robot Atlas, the team attended Central Valley Regional. There, Team 2135 was chosen for the 1st seeded alliance by Team 254 - Bellarmine Cheesy Poofs and Team 973 - Atascadero HS GreyBots and won in the finals. Later at Silicon Valley Regional,
the team was chosen by the 4th seeded alliance, Team 1323 - MadTown Robotics and Team 846 - Lynbrook HS Funky Monkeys, and
together they were semi-finalists. Having won at CVR, Team 2135 competed at the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis,
Missouri, in the Galileo Division. During off-season, the team competed at Chezy Champs and was chosen by the 2nd seeded alliance: Team 846 - Funky Monkeys and Team 971 - Mountain View HS Spartan Robotics. They were finalists. At MadTown Throwdown, the
team’s two robots, Atlas and Batlas, were both Alliance Captains. Atlas was the 4th seeded alliance captain with Team 1323
- MadTown Robotics and Team 971B - Spartan Robotics. Batlas was the 7th seeded alliance captain, with Team 1422 - The Neon Knights
and Team 3970 - Duncan Dynamics. Both played in the quarter-finals, and the team won the Spirit Award.
Robot Name: Atlas


2013 - ULTIMATE ASCENT
The 2013 season was focused on building, testing, and competing with Team 2135’s robot named Steve Rogers. Co-presidents
Jennifer Early (Class of 2013), Gabriella Pastera (Class of 2013), and Emily Mullins (Class of 2013) all helped drive the team
forward. The team competed at Central Valley Regional (CVR) and was chosen for the 3rd seeded alliance by Team 1458 - Red Tie
Robotics and Team 1671 - Buchanan Bird Brains. They were quarter-finalists. Team 2135 also competed at SVR and then at MadTown
Throwdown during the off-season. There, they were chosen by the 6th seeded alliance, Team 2813 - Prospect HS Gear Heads and Team
604 - Leland HS Quixilver, and were again quarter-finalists.
Robot Name: Steve (Steve Rogers)


2012 - REBOUND RUMBLE
Led by Jennifer Early (Class of 2013), Gabriella Pastera (Class of 2013), and Emily Mullins (Class of 2013), Team 2135 built
their robot Moe and attended the Sacramento Regional, Silicon Valley Regional, and then MadTown Throwdown during the off-season.
At the Sacramento Regional, Team 2135 was Rank 6 and Alliance Captain for the 4th seeded Alliance. At SVR, the team worked hard
and gained much experience. Later at MadTown, they were on the 6th seeded alliance.
Robot Name: Mo (M-O from Wall-E)


2011 - LOGOMOTION
Led by Mary Gatesy (Class of 2011), Team 2135 competed at Silicon Valley Regional and then MadTown Throwdown in the fall. At
the off-season competition, MadTown Throwdown, the team was chosen for the 4th seeded alliance by Team 968 - Robotics Alliance
of West Covina and Team 254B - Bellarmine Cheesy Poofs and played in the semi-finals.


2010 - BREAKAWAY
The 2010 game had proven to be a challenge. Led by Sarah Watanabe (Class of 2010), the team overcame many obstacles during the
building of a more complex robot than previous years. During off-season, Team 2135 competed at the MadTown Throwdown in Madera
on November 13. The Presentation Robotics Team qualified as a part of the semi-finalist round and placed 9th out of 20. It was
a close game with the team only one win away from becoming finalists. It was a fantastic way to end the 2010 season with an
even better start to 2011.


2009 - LUNACY
The 2009 season was led by Erin Simpson (Class of 2009). During the season, the team expanded to include twenty-six eager and
bright-eyed members. The team made it to CalGames with great enthusiasm, and despite their anxiety and inexperience, was able
to place an impressive 12th out of 36 teams. At Silicon Valley Regional, their efforts were shown when they were placed 16th
out of 49 competing (and more experienced) teams. In alliance selection, they were chosen to be a part of the 8th seeded alliance.
Robot Name: Skippy


2008 - FIRST OVERDRIVE
After ending the 2007 season on a good note, the team was prepared to make more changes for the 2008 season. With leaders
Arielle Virrey (Class of 2008) and Elaine Higashi (Class of 2008) along with many dedicated mentors, the team’s knowledge
expanded exponentially. Their skills were put to the test when the software had to be recoded about five weeks into the build
cycle. They were forced to start a new software program with SVR rapidly approaching. Fortunately, the team successfully leapt
over this barrier and made it to the competition with their robot performing at optimum levels.
2007 - RACK “N” ROLL
In 2007, the robotics club expanded and joined the FIRST Robotics Competition. By this time, the club had transformed into
a team consisting of 15 students all of which were dedicated to building a robot. Within the first year of entering the
competition, the students’ knowledge and skills grew tremendously considering their lack or original knowledge or prior
experience. The students quickly comprehended the mechanics of robot building and the various fields involved in creating it.
Naturally, Team 2135 ran into various obstacles along the way, such as a tight budget, safety of the students, and so forth. Teachers were concerned about students’ safety while building the robot, especially since it took place in the school’s hallways. Presentation’s Robotics Team did not yet have a dedicated working area or many power tools, but they were able to overcome the obstacles and still proved successful during the competition. During 2007, Team 2135 competed in the Silicon Valley Regional (SVR) and Sacramento Regional (Davis). In the Silicon Valley Regional, they received the Highest Rookie Seed Team Award and the team’s website was given the Website Excellence Award. Once the 2007 season ended, Presentation High School purchased a house as an area specifically dedicated for the Robotics Team.
2006
Presentation High School first became interested in robotics in 2006. Two sophomores, Elaine Higashi and Arielle Jeriza Virrey,
had developed a strong interest in robotics and wanted to learn more about the field and its mechanics. After approaching
Principal Mary Miller and Dr. Howe of the Mathematics and Science Academy at Presentation, the two girls were given two VEX
robot kits. With great enthusiasm, Elaine and Arielle gathered a few other interested friends and began assembling the robots.
Within a short period of time, they had completed the project and presented it to Ms. Miller and Dr. Howe. Both were very
impressed in the girls’ voluntary commitment in building the robots that it was agreed a club would be formed. For the
rest of 2006, about 12 girls worked on more VEX kits after school for fun.