“You have exactly one hour. Good luck! Go!!” the announcer shouted into the microphone. At the Marvell headquarters in Santa Clara, California, the cafeteria was transformed into an engineering workshop. Every table was filled with a box of mechanical parts containing everything needed to build a robot fit for a race around campus.

Around 170 Marvell employees teamed up in groups of eight to ten to bring their visions to life. The Robot Racing event, a Marvell tradition, sparks creativity and teamwork among colleagues, embodying what Marvell is all about.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to get together, use our brains outside of regular meetings, have a team building event, laugh together and have fun,” said Principal Engineer Anis Weldon. “And if we win? That’s good! And even if we lose, that’s okay. We get the experience.”

Juliette Gomez (right) and her team sport matching shirts.

As time started to tick down, teams assembled and started to craft their approach. “The initial strategy was to steal one component from each of the other teams so they cannot build,” joked Senior Staff Advanced Packaging Engineer Miguel Ruphuy-Chan. “Right now, we are focusing on figuring out our plan.”

Ruphuy-Chan’s team is mostly composed of members new to Marvell, as are several other teams. One crew is entirely made up of interns.

“We’re all having a good time,” said Product Marketing Intern Darrius Robertson. “As an intern, I like to see that Marvell likes to do a lot of these events with employees, bringing us together and getting a little competitive instead of just being at our cubes. It’s a pretty fun, engaging activity. A lot of us are from more of the electrical design backgrounds and we’re all doing something that’s mechanical.”

Other groups are made up of coworkers from neighboring cubes. For new graduate Field Applications Engineer Tiffany Vo, the event is an opportunity to get to know the people in her department better. “I get to work with other people on my team,” she said. “We signed up as a team, so I think that’s really cool to get to know everyone. And it’s nice to be competitive with other teams.”

In addition to building their own robot to race, teams negotiated with other teams to unlock exclusive parts and earn upgrades to make a better car.

Senior Director Chuck Nunley was the designated negotiator on Vo’s team. “I’m getting us the upgrades. The event is a ton of fun. Last year was the first time I participated and I was totally sold. It’s surprisingly competitive. You get to see the vicious side of some of the Marvellians but it’s also fun too.”

Chuck Nunley (middle) negotiates while Tiffany Vo (right) collaborates with her team.

Cheers erupted from Nunley’s team soon after as he returned to his table victorious, monster wheels in hand. Supporting each other while working towards the task came to life, each table buzzing with ideas and energy.

“This event is one of my favorites because it actually shows not only team building but cross-team building because they are sharing and trading pieces,” said Senior Events Manager Laura Castellano who helped organize the event, alongside Event Coordinator Keke McClaney.

“Robot Racing is Marvell as its own entity,” explains McClaney. “It’s innovation. It’s collaboration. It just ties together our storyline as a whole and makes it into an actual, physical activity that we can all participate in.”

“Everyone just has so much fun when they are racing so it’s fun to watch,” said Castellano.

Then it was time to race. Hundreds of Marvell employees surrounded the track to see the creations being tested in real time. The drivers and their robots raced in several heats, competing and seeing the tangible outcome of their work.

Robots and their drivers line up to race around the track as the crowd intently watches.

“I think that this is one of the best team building events that Marvell has because it brings people together,” says Juliette Gomez. “They have to communicate, they have to strategize, and they have to build something. It’s the same thing that we do at Marvell. We have to communicate, strategize and build. And we have one goal to reach.”

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