THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
I cannot say this enough! I have never see two more compatible teams from different parts of the US. A team from the Bronx that has the Yankees as their sponsors, a team from Richmond VA that has technology leaders as theirs, and a small team dedicated to FIRST from Grundy VA with only NASA and local business sponsors, we are the true definition of FIRST. We all complemented each other perfectly in strategy and robot abilities. We could not ask for more out going, fun to work with, and dedicated teams as Maximum Oz and Two Train Robotics.
I also want to send my congratulations to Maximum Oz for winning the Chairmans Award. You DESERVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! Ditto for Two Train Robotics for winning the Imagery Award.
I hope to see everyone at Houston!
Here’s also a Richmond Times-Dispatch article on ‘Competition and Cooperation’ called ‘Stack Attack’.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/localupdates/MGB76WOE2DD.html
’Stack Attack’
Tucker High School a regional winner in robotics contest
By Jessica Sabbath
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
After three days of metal-clashing and bin-tumbling competition, J.R. Tucker High School was part of a three-team winning alliance that won the FIRST Robotics regional yesterday.
Paired with teams from Grundy and Bronx, N.Y., for the final rounds, the alliance defeated 58 teams from 10 states and the District of Columbia in the event at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Siegal Center. The three teams will advance to the national championship competition in April at Reliant Park in Houston
“It’s great. The win was awesome,” 17-year-old Shailen Patel [JosephM adds= He was our human player who danced on the pressure pad], a junior at Tucker, shouted as he and his team-mates hugged, jumped and cheered to celebrate their victory.
John Clarke [JospehM adds= aka CHAINSAW], the team’s coach and a technology teacher at Tucker, said the dedication of this year’s team members made the team successful, and they kept their goal simple- to have fun.
This year’s game, “Stack Attack”, pitted teams against each other in a ring for two minute scramble to stack plastic storage containers on their side and destroy opponents’ efforts.
Teams had six weeks to design, create and perfect their robots from a box of more than 900 parts.
“It’s been nuts,” said team member Ben Sears, 17, a senior at Tucker. “We’ve been running around like crazy. We’ve had many late nights. We worked all the snow days.”
This year marks FIRST Robotics’ 12th year of competition. Inventor and engineer Dean Kamen, who designed the Segway Human Transporter, created FIRST- For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology- to motivate students to pursue interests in science, technology and engineering.
Each of the 61 teams in Richmond this weekend competed in seven qualifying round before the top eight advanced to the quarterfinals.
The games are designed for competitors as well as cooperation, said volunteer Michael Snell, who works with computer security for the U.S coast guard.
“A lot of what they do in the qualifying rounds is what I call evil genius,” Snell said. “We want people to compete, but we also want people to cooperate.”
Teams were placed in randomly selected alliances for the seven qualifying rounds. The winning alliance’s scores included the number of bins on its side as well as double the number of bins on the loosing side.
Four of the top eight teams to advice to the elimination rounds were from the Richmond area.
The Chameleons from Richmond Community High School and Synergy, which included students from James River and Midlothian high schools and Robious Middle School, were ousted in the semifinals.
The Dragons team from Petersburg High School and Appomattox Regional Governor’s School was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Members of the winning alliance also won some of the competition’s most prestigious awards.
Tucker won the Judges Award for outstanding spirit.
Grundy won the Regional Chairman’s Award, the competition’s most prestigious award, for best partnership effort, mentor-ship and inspiration.
The Highland Springs High School team, which did not advace to the elimination rounds, won the competition’s second-highest award for “Engineering Inspiration.”
Tim Couillard, the head coach of Synergy and a physics teacher at James River High School, said the competition is important because it allows students to take their knowledge out of the abstract and put it into reality.
“It gives them more realistic view of how engineering is done,” he said, “more than they could ever lean in a classroom.”