When I asked Hailey and Coralie what the wiring team actually does, they both kind of laughed, because it's not what most people expect.
Most people hear electrical engineering and picture circuits and wires. That's definitely part of it, but not the whole story. As Coralie explained, people think it's just resistors and wiring, but everything we use has to be programmed too.
Their work sits right between hardware and software. One moment they're wiring components, the next they're debugging code, and a lot of the time they're trying to figure out why something that should work just doesn't. It's a lot more embedded than it sounds.
When things actually got real
The project didn't start like that. Fall quarter was mostly planning, figuring out what sensors to use, how everything would connect, and what software they would rely on.
By winter, that changed fast. They were building, testing, setting up their GitHub, working with ROS 2, and actually trying to make things run. And that transition wasn't smooth.
One of the hardest parts wasn't even fixing problems, it was figuring out what kind of problem they were dealing with. As Coralie put it, it could be a voltage issue, or it could be coding… you kind of have to guess.
Unlike regular coding, everything overlaps here. If something isn't working, it could be the wiring, the voltage, the code, or all of it at once. Sometimes the exact same setup would work perfectly on one computer and completely fail on another. Hailey described one moment where everything ran fine on one laptop, but on another, it said the file didn't even exist… like there was no trace of it.
They eventually fixed it, but only after digging through setup files they didn't even know they needed.
When hardware makes it worse
If software debugging wasn't enough, hardware added another layer.
There were moments where connections were so unstable that components would only work if someone physically pressed them down. Hailey laughed about it, saying we had to hold down the pico or it acted like nothing was connected.
Over time, they moved to better solutions like soldering and breakout boards, but getting there took trial and error. And sometimes, mistakes weren't fixable. Coralie talked about frying a component because of a grounding issue, where the voltage didn't have a proper path. At that point, it's not about debugging anymore, it's about replacing parts and starting over.
Figuring it out as you go
What stood out the most was how much they learned along the way.
Hailey came in as a first-year just learning C++, and most of the tools they used, like ROS 2, were completely new. She said it simply: I learned it here… just testing it myself.
Coralie added that classes give you the basics, but this project pushes you past that. Instead of solving familiar problems, they were figuring things out from scratch and teaching themselves in real time.
The way they worked reflected that. Early on, everyone focused on their own sensor, learning how it worked and how to program it. But later, everything had to come together. As Coralie explained, it starts off separate, but by the end, you kind of join as a team and put everything together.
That shift is where things get harder, but also more exciting.
Why it was worth it
All of this was happening on top of classes, recruiting, and everything else.
For Hailey, being on the team actually helped create structure during her first year. Coralie admitted there were trade-offs. There were times she chose this over other commitments because when it's something you like and are passionate about, it's easier to give your time to it.
Both of them kept coming back to the same idea: this felt more real than classwork. It was something they could actually talk about, something they built themselves.
And more than anything, it was the environment that stood out. Hailey said, I didn't feel like I had to act like I knew what was going on.
Coralie added that it felt very comfortable not knowing something,
which made it easier to actually learn.
Progress didn't come all at once. It came in small wins. Getting one sensor to work, fixing one issue, finally seeing something respond the way it should. Even though everyone worked on different parts, those moments felt shared.
Now, everything is starting to come together. They're moving into the phase where individual pieces turn into one system. Mapping, navigation, and getting the robot to actually function as a whole is the focus. Different pieces, but all leading to the same goal.