Blog Bot: A New Year Begins

East's robotics team is part of an organization known as For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology (FIRST). FIRST is a global organization that gives students a chance to explore the field of robotics. A team can be assembled and enter a competition in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and can also go national if they win. According to the FIRST website, FIRST will give $20,000 in special parts every year to start off the challenge; the rest is up to team members to finish the robot. Teams can also apply for sponsorships through NASA and other big companies.

In being part of this program there are $10 million worth of scholarship opportunities. Team members, mentors, and some professionals may help teams make a successful year.

The Robotics team also held a meeting at an open house on September 23 at East and presented in front of parents. East junior and Robotics team member Weston Norris told parents how other students could get involved and briefly asked for small donations for our team.

This year we needed sponsors, so the team and I went to Minnesota Power for a presentation. We brought the robot and gave a great performance. My team also went to UMD and presented to a group of college kids and tried to get a sponsorship again.

In our last competition in April we worked hard and scored big points, but we weren’t chosen to join the top eight. Out of 50 teams that were in the Mariucci arena, we got 23rd. We had one problem with our robot and we fixed it quickly; it was a cracked board. The competition was held in Minneapolis, MN. in two arenas, William’s arena and Mariucci arena. Because there were a little over 100 teams so the competition was held in two arenas; William’s and Mariucci arena.

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