Winning Like A Machine: Geek Gods compete at states

The+Geek+Gods+robot+before+they+remodeled+for+states.+

The Geek Gods robot before they remodeled for states.

Robotics is easily the most underrated club at Western. Most students either don’t know robotics exists, or they simply don’t know what they do. Students don’t know how hard the club’s challenges are and how hard the team works—meeting twice a week after school. Mrs. Bertrand and Mr. Larson supervise this club, and both are very proud of their students’ successful season. “We are the oldest school based team in the area,” Mrs. Bertrand said.

There are 30 kids in the club who are divided into three teams. At the beginning of the year all teams are presented with a challenge. The challenge is called First Tech Challenge (FTC). “Each team is told ‘go to town, figure it out, we are not going to tell you how to do this,’”  Mrs. Bertrand said. This year, the challenge was to have the student-built robots climb a mountain. The three teams—The Geek Gods, The Loose Screws, and Her Majesty’s Engineers—designed and built their robots to take to competition.

robotresize2

The format of the competition is “two robots against robots.” This means that during the first match, your robot is an ally with someone, but in the next match your ally can become your opponent. There are three stages of the match the autonomous stage, the driver control period, and the end period. The first stage is where the students run a pre-set program for the robot to perform. The second period is when two students drive the robot and control it. The third is just the end.

“It’s very, very, very, very stressful but it’s also very fun. Every time we win a match it’s one of the best feelings there is,” said senior Austin Germani.

IMG_3088

At the regional competition, the top four seeded teams got to choose allies. Germani’s team was chosen, but they turned it down because of something the FTC calls “Gracious Professionalism.” “We felt that there was no way in which we could benefit the top four seeded teams in the elimination round, so we declined two alliance offers,” Germani explained. “It’s all about working together and being kind and professional to other teams.”

The team won the Rockwell Collins Innovation award for their 3-D printed wheels and creative design. “The most important part of robotics is learning to work together,” said Mrs. Bertrand, “it’s actually more difficult than learning technical skills, and it’s the part that we are constantly focusing on.”

The team left at 5:30 am on February 13th to head to states. Unfortunately, due to a lack of preparation time, they didn’t place. They redesigned the entire robot before heading out. “Really my focus is on how far the team has come along with teamwork over the course of the season,” said Mrs. Bertrand.