Congratulations to the local robotics team “The Metal That Moves™” who were finalists at the Northern California First Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Championship on March 4th.
All five team members are freshman at Carlmont High School. James George, Patrick Hsu, James Pak and Everett Yee are from Redwood Shores, and Adam Cobb is from Belmont.
During the season the team participated in three regional tournaments and advanced to the Northern California Championship. In addition to advancing to the final round of the championship against 31 of the top teams, winning the Finalist Award, they also won the “Rockwell Collins Innovate Award.” In the exciting final, the boys forced a decisive third game before being defeated by the FTC team “Boss Bots” from Moraga who advanced to the FTC World Championship in St. Louis.
Designed for high school students, First Tech Challenge (FTC) is part of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) family of robotics competitions that begin with children as young as age six. While it is a relatively new program (started in 2007), FTC has grown quickly and during the 2011/2012 season there were 2,100 teams with 21,000 students competing at more than 100 tournaments. FTC offers the opportunity for students to design, build and program robots, apply real-world math and science concepts, develop problem solving, organizational and team-building skills, and compete and cooperate at the same time.
Each year brings with it a new and unique challenge. This season’s challenge was to design and build a robot robust enough to push a bowling ball uphill, yet articulate enough to pick up racquetballs and place them into crates and then stack or elevate those crates. The team’s robot incorporated a unique scissor lift that enabled it to score many points and for part of the season, held the northern California record for lift height.
Being on a FTC team is more than just about robotics. It’s also about inspiring others to be enthusiastic about science and technology and connecting with the scientific community. The team held robotics demonstrations for local Boy Scout troops 301 and 27, and they visited with Dr. Richard Mahoney, Director of Robotics and members of his team at the renowned research institute, SRI. The team has also been invited to help out with Hiller Aviation Museum’s Robotic Ranger camps this summer.
The Team recently celebrated its successful season, and is looking toward the next season starting in September. You can view video of their robot and competitions at http://www.youtube.com/themetalthatmovesTM
— Winslow Yee