Sunshine Coast teens Oliver Gidora and Kiel Strang are ready to take on the world - again.
Their robotics team, RCXRM, has been crowned the Washington State Robotics Champions, which qualifies them for the world championship. They were awarded the prestigious inspire award at the FIRST Tech Challenge tournament in Seattle Feb. 28. The award is given to the team that best embodies the 'ideal team' - evidenced by strong showing in robot performance, robot design, engineering notebook, teamwork and gracious professionalism.
FIRST is an international organization whose goal is to nurture creativity and to develop skills and interest in science and technology. Approximately 200,000 students participate worldwide in programs designed for elementary to college-aged students. FIRST is based on an engineering team model and is billed as 'sports for the mind.' RCXRM has participated in FIRST for six years - four years in the FIRST Lego League and two years in the FIRST Tech Challenge.
This year's robot, the Phoenix, is constructed with a building system called Tetrix and is controlled with a Lego Mindstorms programmable brick. It is designed to play a game called Face Off - to collect hockey pucks from racks around the robot field and score them into three central goals while dealing with various terrain and obstacles. The robot matches include an autonomous period, where the robot relies entirely on pre-programmed instructions and sensor readings, and a tele-operated period where the robots are driven by remote control.
RCXRM were undefeated on the field in Seattle, winning all of their qualifying matches, and were the top seed going into the finals. They remained undefeated through three elimination rounds, finishing in first place for Robot Performance. The judges were impressed with their creative robot design and programming and their willingness to assist other teams. This stellar performance all around earned them the overall inspire award.
Their victory qualifies RCXRM to attend the FIRST World Robotics Championship to be held in Atlanta, Ga. in April. This will be their second trip to Atlanta, having won a similar honour in 2006 while participating in the FIRST Lego League.
The boys are hoping to raise some money in the community to help cover the $1,000U.S. entry fee as well as equipment costs, so you may see them busking or hosting a bake sale and they would be most grateful for your support.
Please contact them at [email protected] or 604-885-6472 if you can help out.
