Editor’s note: Over the weekend, the Williston Wildcat Robotics Team was on a winning qualifying team and earned one of only 16 invitations to a state-wide robotics championship in March. Ted Matthias, computer science teacher and FTC Robotics Team #3157 coach, explains.
For the last five years, an annual group of our most creative, engineering-minded students have participated on Williston’s Wildcat Robotics Team. Their work has synthesized principles of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as they have designed, built and programmed a medium-scale metal robot. Their robot is specifically designed to compete in the nationally-supported FIRST Tech (Robot) Challenge.
FIRST (“For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”) is a non-profit organization founded by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and other innovative devices. FIRST conducts four different robotics programs on the regional, state, and international leves. High school students usually compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) program; all 2012-13 FTC teams compete in the “Ring It Up!” Challenge.
Between now and the beginning of March, the FIRST Massachusetts FTC Organization is holding qualifying challenges with the winning alliances receiving invitations to the Massachusetts FTC State Championship. Only eight alliances will be invited to the state championships. The winning alliance at the state championship moves on the the world championship in St. Louis, MO on April 23. An “alliance” is composed of two teams with two robots. Together, they compete (on a rotating basis) against the two robots of an opposing alliance.
Yesterday’s qualifying challenge was held at Arlington High School in Arlington, MA. The qualifier hosted 16 teams in eight rotating alliances, competing seven times, during a total of 28 matches. We were members of the winning alliance in a best two-out-of-three final championship event. Our alliance prevailed in six matches (win, loss, tie, tie, tie, win).
This evening, I was “officially” notified by the Massachusetts FTC Organization that the Williston Wildcat Robotics Team has just earned one of only 16 invitations (eight alliances) to the Massachusetts FTC State Championship on March 16! The Williston Wildcat Robotics Team has been working tirelessly since September 10 to achieve this outcome!
I would encourage everyone to take a moment to congratulate the Team Members:
Chris Berghoff
Matt Cavanaugh
Jackson KaneLong
James Kim
Ethan Kimball
Aaron Lucia
Kyle Watson
Sean Won
The students have taken concepts learned in class and have applied them in an entirely different context. By synthesizing these concepts within a kinetic, team-oriented, challenge-based environment, they have strongly reinforced the important knowledge they learned. Therefore, this is not only a “team-based win”, it is an “educational win” as well.
Thank you all for helping the team to succeed!