![The Phoenix varsity volleyball team lines up for the national anthem. “We were more communicative [with each other] during this game, and I feel like we kept our energy up, especially after the first set,” senior Jessica Valdov said.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DSC_0202-1200x800.jpg)
On Feb. 22, TSA, also known as the Technology Student Association, went to the TSA Regional Event, with the Video Game Design and Music Production teams winning first place in their respective categories.
TSA is one of the biggest clubs at Rock Ridge. At the beginning of the year, students choose a regional competition to work on for the remainder of the year. Students who won at regionals are qualified to compete at TechnoSphere. Technosphere is the state-level for TSA. Some events, such as Video Game Design, require you members place in that event to advance to TechnoSphere. However, some events, like Robotics, allow members to directly sign up for the competition.
TSA competitions empower participants’ creativity to run wild, even in the space of auditory art. That is how sophomores Zareef Karim and Pushpak Jain competed and won first place in Music Production. In this competition, participants produce an original music piece that reflects the annual theme while documenting their process. This year’s theme was to create background music for a video game, where the main character is visiting a blacksmith.
Both Karim and Jain have prior experience and a passion for the music industry. “I love to hear music videos and play around with beats in SoundTrack,” Karim said. “I thought the topic was pretty interesting, so I first went online and took some samples from different video game soundtracks and YouTube videos that inspired me.”
Both members were very proud of their work. Not only did it further their passion for music production, but it taught them other valuable skills. “I was actually really proud of myself for learning to manage my time better because whenever I was free, instead of watching TV or playing games I worked on the project,” Karim said. They hope to eventually have this same success at the Technosphere event with their goal being to place in the top three as a finalist.
Freshmen Revantha Kathuroju, Aadhav Meganathan, Aryaan Patel, Aryan Vaidya, Rohan Vaidya, and Pranav Venkateswaran competed in the Video Game Design competition and won first place at the Regional event.
This competition allowed them to qualify for Technosphere to better compete against other teams and will allow them to get more awards. This competition needed a lot of preparation and development to have exceptional results during the competition itself, which they did not achieve easily.
Freshman Rohan Vaidya had opinions on how to improve for TechnoSphere. “We used Unity for the production of our robot,” Vaidya said. “If we need to, we might need to change our time management, because we did this sort of thing at the last minute, and it’s like a miracle that we won.”
With the video game team only starting a week before the competition, it highlights how much they could have improved in their game development. Despite winning first place, the competitors know they can still improve prior to Technosphere. “When we made our project, we didn’t get it to where we wanted it,” Meganathan said. “We also had a [User Interface] planned, but we never got to add it.”
With a strong performance at Regionals, the Rock Ridge TSA teams are preparing for Technosphere with determination and excitement. The Video Game Design team, specifically, plans to refine their interface and push their creativity for the next stage. “We [are] planning to add more levels, and a lot of [other features] for Technosphere!” Meganathan said.
Vaidya had similar views for TechnoSphere preparation. “Just meet up, like, more constantly, maybe like, two, three times a week, just like, get things sorted out,” Vadya said. “Hoping to achieve maybe a top three in states, just like getting an award.”
In the future, TSA Coach Howard Goldberg has plans to expand TSA to be more than just a competition club. “I would love to see more students participating and contributing to the TSA Rock Ridge community–beyond competitions,” Goldberg said. With growing members and new opportunities ahead, TSA continues to drive STEM and innovation within Rock Ridge.
