Six weeks ago, my teammates and I listened to the description of this year’s FIRST Robotics Challenge.
We have poured every ounce of hard work, creativity, perseverance and inspiration we had into designing, building and testing our robot. Thank goodness for good mentors, generous sponsors, incredibly supportive parents, and amazing school support!
This year’s challenge, FIRST STRONGHOLD is a medieval-themed high-tech “capture the flag” that required us to develop a strategy, design our robot in CAD, assemble a drive train, fabricate parts, complete an electrical system, write our computer code, There were times we didn’t think it was possible. We ultimately finished in 10th place and were one of the 8 team captains for the playoffs. This was out of 52 teams representing 5 different states and Canada in this Pittsburgh Regional competition. Mr. Ball, one of our team mentors and parents, said “Our team overcame some significant hurdles, worked our butt’s off, maintained our composure and positive attitude, and far surpassed our ranking from last year…amazing!”
We compete again this weekend in Cleveland at the Buckeye Regional. You can tune in to the live 
broadcast on Friday and Saturday, March 18 and 19 at http://www.oai.org/firstbuckeye/webcast.html.
There are a lot of ways to get involved with FIRST Robotics. Let me know if I can help you form a team, become a mentor or coach, or become a team or regional sponsor. The teams could not compete without their corporate sponsors. Thank you to Shrugged Enterprises, Deep Well Services, Morris Great Lakes, Civic & Environmental Consultants, Inc., Maxim Crane, Babst, Calland, Clements & Zomnir, Paul’s Chrome Plating, Inc., Mark Lasky, Planet Mars, Breakneck Tavern, River Valley Tang Soo Do, Armstrong, Joe Vaccarello Dollar Bank, and Grow a Generation! Your generosity equals future innovators!
