PHOTO COURTESY OF UHS
Parents and community members turned out Saturday for 2015 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) season kick-off event for the Umatilla High School robotics team.
The team’s six-week build season began with the world release of the 2015 Game on Saturday.
(HHS GRAD EARNS GIRL SCOUTS’ HIGHEST HONOR)
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a nonprofit organization devoted to helping young people discover and develop a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). FRC combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, teams are challenged to raise funds, hone teamwork skills, and build and program a robot to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors.
As the team begins its fourth year, they are hoping for a repeat of their successful last two seasons which took them to World Finals in St. Louis.
The team has grown from nine members a few years ago to 42 this year. The challenge facing robotics teams this year will be a competition called Recycle Rush in which the teams’ student-built robots must stack boxes and recycling bins.
Helping to guide the team this year will be engineer mentor Trent Weatherby and team mentor Kyle Sipe.
Team member Elijah Pine, a sophomore at UHS, said this year’s competition will be different kind of challenge for the team.
“This game definitely incorporates a different aspect,” Pine said. “We’ve never had to create a robot that must be designed for precision and accuracy as opposed to speed and dexterity.”
Sipe agreed.
“This game is more a battle with ourselves than against others, we’re truly trying to engineer a robot that will compete against the clock and our own limitations,” he said.
Senior Project Manager Anabel Moreno-Mendez said she is looking forward to the season.
“This is the first time in my four years (participating with FRC) that we’ve seen something like this, but I’m certain that our team will be able to rise to the challenge of Recycle Rush,” she said. “We have a great group this year, and I can’t wait to see what we come up with.”
For more information, visit the UHS robotics team website.
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