Just after taking home the Texas Association of Private & Parochial Schools (TAPPS) Robotics State Champion banner on April 2, St. Michael's LightSaders robotics team headed to Houston to compete at the 2022 FIRST® celebration of STEM among high school teams from all over the world at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Wednesday, April 20.
During the multiple-day event (known as “World’s”) which culminated on Sunday, April 24, FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) hosted more than 30,000 students, mentors/coaches, volunteers, sponsors, media, and supporters from around the world as hundreds of student robotics teams converged on the convention floor in their different arenas.
"It was a great opportunity to see how much more there is to robotics,” freshman Nash Dahl said about his first year at the event.
The LightSaders’ event, “FREIGHT FRENZY,” presented by Raytheon Technologies, kicked off last September and involved many successive competitions. The objective of FREIGHT FRENZY was for each team and its robot to navigate a complex transportation system by traversing barriers and racing against time to load and deliver essential items to those in need.
St. Michael’s robotics coach and instructor Mike Scallon attended the event with the team. “I'm proud of the effort and intelligence of this team. They really work well together and do their best to maximize all their talents. Just getting to the world championship each season is a real accomplishment in a region packed with world-caliber teams. I'm looking forward to MTI this June and another run at World’s next season,” Scallon said.
More than just building robots, FIRST Tech Challenge teams from grades 7-12 undertake to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format. The LightSaders comprise a team of students from freshmen to seniors, each with their own job, in building an autonomous and driver-operated robot that performs a series of critical tasks.
“I enjoyed displaying my live strategy and decision-making skills,” junior Peter Williams said.
According to their website, “FIRST Tech Challenge students learn to think like engineers. Robots are built from a reusable platform, powered by Android technology, and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming.”
“It was a super, unforgettable, experience,” sophomore Davin Mortellaro said about his sixth year competing. “Programming has taught me to analyze a situation and use logic to reduce unnecessary factors.”
Click Read More to Continue