Author: Conner Gauthier
J.P. Taravella High School, Coral Springs, Florida
AR Cup 2025 Team 8
Moving Mountains
I’ve heard a story about a foolish man trying to move a mountain. The story goes that Yugong decided to move a mountain to make path to his village. Day by day, he worked with his family to move what dirt they could. Little progress was made in moving the mountain. I can tell you that after participating in the 2025 National Youth Airborne Robotics sponsored by the Zhejiang University Alumni Association of the Washington DC area and the Capital Youth Outreach Club, that Engineering and Robotics can seem as challenging as moving a mountain.
Seeking Help from Others
Coding can be an intense task. I was inspired by one of my fellow students George Wang from Team 3. His talent for coding helped me to develop more skill in this area. George showed his courage by being one of the first participants to post in our competition General Discord chat. He was always exploring the source code, trying new things, and making adjustments. I saw his courage to ask difficult questions, rally support, and dig beneath the surface. When I asked for his help he was there when no one else could, or would. I wanted to use a Computer Design program that was made in China. I found CrownCAD which is made by a software company located in Jinan, Shandong Province. I posted a message to the group chat asking for help. Evan Zhang the Coach for Team 2 helped explain a file type that I had never used before that would make sharing my design easier. I was grateful for his help at a challenging moment. To contribute to the spirit of cooperation I released my design of a straw connector to the entire group as open source. Any team may use, modify, and improve my design to their own benefit. One of the first methods for controlling a blimp is an app on a phone. Advanced teams can reprogram their blimps to use a video game controller. Getting the code to work can be a challenge. Ellie Zhang from Team 3 offered advice. Her support was most appreciated. I was so excited when I finally succeeded in using the controller to pilot my blimp.
A New World
I got advice from Artificial Intelligence Chat Programs. My favorites are Yuanbao, Duobao and Kimi. For many people AI is a new and untested frontier. They might not be sure when to use it, or know how it can improve their learning. During one of our first team exercises, AI helped explain concepts in physics like Ohms law and electrical resistance. I haven’t had physics yet in school. I could have searched the web, but AI has a way of making the answer specific to my question that makes it easier to understand. The most important thing to know about AI is that it can sometimes make mistakes, so always double check. For example with those physics questions, I would ask our team Coach Harry Yu and he would explain further. If you haven’t used AI yet give it a try for yourself. I’ve seen videos that say using AI will make you dumb, but this has been the opposite of my experience.
Impossible Challenges
Right now an amazing current event is happening in China. A new dam has started construction. This dam will be 3 times larger than any dam that has ever been built. It’s construction will take 10 years and will literally move a mountain in Xizang China. When it is completed it will provide clean, cheap power to billions of people, and help to reduce our global reliance on Fossil Fuel. It will improve the daily lives of many people by helping to reduce dangerous flooding. I had my own impossible challenge during the competition. My fan motors appeared to be mismatched. One of my fans was 5000kv while the other was 6000kv. When I pressed forward the left fan would thrust forward, while the right fan would thrust back. Together the two fans were opposing forces preventing any movement forward. I thought of a few solutions. Should I try and remove one fan? Should I try and cut the blades to reduce the thrust? I even designed and built a cover for one fan to block the thrust. I wasn’t going to be able to make any progress because 1 + -1 will always equal 0. Then I had a thought. Where two opposing fans are working against each other, the correct solution is for the fan spinning in the wrong direction to change course so the blimp can continue to move forward. Our world today is like my blimp. We are all on the same planet together. My solution was clear. I needed to dive deep into the Python Code and reverse the fan that was thrusting backwards when I pressed forwards. With the help of Deepin Union Code, a coding design interface, and some tips from AI I made the update. It was the most difficult coding challenge I have even attempted. When I was finally successful and my blimp flew, I felt happy beyond words. As my team was building our blimp we also discovered some interesting but inconvenient facts. A helium canister that claims to be 80% helium may be far less. Paint has weight and can make the difference between a balloon floating and not floating. Batteries must not be overcharged and can sometimes short circuit. Wires that are soldered to circuit boards can become detached. Designs can look good on paper, but fail miserably when testing. With each failure we learned something new, and we tried to fix it with a new approach. Step by step we moved forward. Our hands were covered in Super Glue and paint. It was discouraging at first, but as it kept happening we grew a bit of resistance. Parents in the WeChat group reflected that this process is a lot like life. As each of us grows we will face great challenges. We must not be afraid of failure. We must not give up.
The Competition Day
I set out in this competition to learn something about Chinese Culture. My teammates have taught me that is important above all else to have fairness. To never forget that as hard as we compete we are all in this together. We should never let people down by being unfair. We should take actions that are right even when they are difficult. This is the greatest lesson I have learned. To me this is a good foundation for a shared future.
A Shared Future
When we all work together moving a mountain doesn’t seem foolish at all. It is possible. I hope all the student’s that participated in this year’s competition can move many mountains, or at least like Yugong, make a little progress. I think if we work together we can build a brighter, and lighter shared future for humanity.
This event/article was supported by the CIAO Lab at GMU, the Zhejiang University Alumni Association of the Washington DC Area, and the Capital Youth Outreach Club.
Website Editor: Sophia Wang
华府青年 CYOC 
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