By Alex Yu

Ralph Luis Rivera has been Collegiate’s JK-12 Robotics and Engineering Program Leader since February 28, 2024. He works closely with Collegiate’s robotics team, TORCH 5804, as well as the FIRST Lego League teams. Though he has been at the school for nearly two years now, he is relatively unknown to many students in the Upper School.

Rivera was born in Fort Pierce, Florida and lived in many cities along Florida’s eastern coast during his childhood. Initially, Rivera was interested in becoming a video game developer in high school; however, he was led down the path of engineering by a fellow student who introduced him to FIRST Robotics, an international robotics competition for high school students. FIRST allows students to learn how to design and construct robots, and then compete against other robots in a specific competition that changes every year.

Rivera (fifth from right) on team 180 SPAM after winning the South Florida Regional Event in FRC in 2012. Photo credit: dodar via chiefdelphi.

From that point on, FIRST and engineering have always been present in Rivera’s life. After joining local team 180 SPAM from Stuart, Florida, Rivera’s team went on to win the 2012 FRC World Championship in St. Louis during his senior year of high school. Unfortunately, Rivera was left feeling unfulfilled, despite winning the championship, due to a rival team that used a networking exploit to sabotage various teams during the event, creating unfair outcomes in many matches.

Rivera continued working alongside FIRST in college at the University of Florida, where he studied mechanical engineering for his undergraduate degree. While studying, Rivera was also mentoring Team 4118 Roaring Riptide, from Gainesville, Florida, in the team’s early years. Rivera became involved in research regarding robotics mentoring. Rivera recalled, “I went to the American Society of Engineering Education Conference, and that’s what kind of got me into that more academic realm, and then my graduate degree was in education.” Rivera continued exploring both education and engineering at Purdue University for graduate school, where he became a teaching assistant for a course called “Design Thinking in Technology.” During this time, Rivera worked as a project manager in that class for several student teams that designed various devices for real-world applications. Rivera also spent a gap year working for the construction equipment company Caterpillar, Inc. Only a few months after earning his master’s degree, Rivera discovered Collegiate’s own Team 5804 TORCH from a blog post on chiefdelphi.com by former Upper School science teacher and Robotics coach Greg Sesny.

Rivera posing with two robots. Photo credit: Alex Yu.

Though present for only two seasons so far, Rivera revealed how impressed he was with Collegiate’s robotics team, saying, “I’m constantly blown away with the work that everyone in this room can do, even with the schedule that you guys have.” Specifically, he has been especially happy with how involved the students are in the design and building process. Rivera has stated that he doesn’t want to be the “sole driver” of activity on TORCH. Likewise, many students on the team have a positive impression of Rivera as well. Douglas Miller (’28), a Sophomore on the team, said, “I think he’s taught me a lot, and I have learned a lot about FRC robotics through him, so I think he’s a good teacher.”

Rivera arrived at Collegiate shortly after the passing of Dan Bartels, the former head Robotics coach for TORCH 5804. Bartels had founded the team alongside Sesny in 2016 and built the team from the ground up. He led the team to the FIRST World Championship four times between 2016 and 2023, including two times in the Einstein Field, the highest-level division in the world, where TORCH placed third and fifth in the world in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, respectively.

Rivera revealed that he has felt some pressure to live up to Bartels’ achievements and reputation among the students. A question he considered was, “If I’m not at that level yet, am I doing him a disservice?” Additionally, Rivera has had concerns regarding his limited presence at Collegiate. To counter this fear, Rivera has expressed interest in broadening his role in the other areas of Collegiate. Rivera said, “I think I’m looking at the John Maloney Project. I might help out with that just so I can meet other students and meet other teachers. I think that’s my biggest challenge: feeling like a part of Collegiate beyond just TORCH.”

When asked what he would do if FIRST Robotics no longer existed, Rivera responded with “more robotics.” Rivera stated that he would want to start his own local robotics competition, prioritizing accessibility over anything else. He cited the large costs associated with both the construction of a robot each season, and travel to competitions, as the greatest problem FIRST faces.

Rivera has said that his aim for next season is to “have a competitive presence at the district championship,” and that he dreams TORCH 5804 will one day win the FRC World Championship. Next season’s FIRST Robotics game will be revealed on the second Saturday in January. In the meantime however, Rivera already feels hopeful about the upcoming season, stating, “I’m looking forward to it. We had an incredible turnout over the summer. Last Friday, during our first meeting, the energy was really good, and students wanted to prove themselves. And I think that’s 80% of it.”