'Gull Lake hosts area's first-ever robotics competition' Article

[Hallry]

Looking through the Technology section of Google News last night, I stumbled across this article regarding the new Gull Lake District Event that occurred this past weekend.

A few selected tidbits:

Part NASCAR, part NBA, part science fair, the area’s first-ever robotics competition kicked off today.

The auditorium at Gull Lake High School was filled with noise and the bodies of students from across the state, their parents, and volunteers as the FIRST Robotics District Competition got under way. Teams came from across the state, from Boyne City to Zeeland. In all, 36 schools fielded bots in the contest that promised some students a trip to Eastern Michigan University for next month’s State Championships.

The student-designed and student-programmed robots — looking something like a cross between oversized, mutated remote-controlled cars and Mars rovers — were tasked with scooping up small basketballs and shooting them into those hoops. Students had worked hours upon hours of afterschool time on the things most every day of the last six weeks.

Some of them had arms that worked like catapults, others used compressed air, and others pushed the balls through fast-spinning wheels, like a tennis practice ball-launcher. Some bots worked defense, pushing other bots around.

But most of the action was in the pits, a string of stations hidden from spectators by blue curtains, where teams could make final adjustments to their machines or repair their vehicles’ battle wounds.

And spirit there was. Pom-poms were waving and funny hats were worn. The team from Niles wore white jumpsuits splattered with neon green paint and they wore gas masks. Adults and kids alike were dressed zanily, showing spirit for their teams and the event itself.

Watching from the stands, two clusters of teams started an impromptu chant, “Red Alliance,” “Blue Alliance.” When the “Cha Cha Slide” started playing, the Code Red Robotics team from Grandville started the dance down in front of the spectators. Soon other teams joined, including the giant beaver mascot from Harper and some sort of bird mascot from another school.

Congrats to all those involved!