Northwest Indiana News | Robotics team celebrates fourth national championship

[Goobergunch]

Robotics team celebrates fourth national championship
Hammond team welcomed home with police escort into city.

Times Staff Report

HAMMOND -- Eighteen kids received the welcome they deserved Sunday as a line of police vehicles escorted them into town after winning a national engineering competition.

Team Hammond built the winning robot at the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology robotics competition Saturday in Atlanta.

"Everyone's ecstatic," said Bill Beatty, whose Beatty Machine & Manufacturing Co. partners with the team.

"To win the national championship was fabulous. We always felt we had a chance," he said.

Joe Pernick, one of the coaches of the team, said the win made the 12-hour ride home seem short.

"Everyone was in great spirits. Everyone was happy," he said.

For now, celebration plans include a meeting Tuesday with the School City of Hammond Board of Education and a banquet in May.

The winning robots are expected to arrive by truck in a couple of weeks. Pernick said they hope to demonstrate the robots to the public.

This was the fourth national championship title for Team Hammond, which is comprised of students from the city's four high schools.

http://www.thetimesonline.com/articl...7b0010f193.txt

I'd just like to add my voice to those congratulating Team 71 for their fourth national championship - I'm glad to see that you're getting the local recognition you deserve.