West Des Moines Robotics Team Judged Best in the World (Video)

Beta,

West Des Moines Community Schools’ robotics team, won the Inspire Award to bring home the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics World Championship after competing against 128 teams representing 16 countries last weekend in St. Louis, the school district has announced.

The students – Jordan Burklund, Daniel Miller, Annie Howard, Chase Schweitzer, Sidd Somayajula, Saketh Undurty and Tanvi Yenna – and their coach, Emmaly Burkland, will be recognized at a news conference with Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds at 9 a.m. Monday, May 6, at the State Capitol.

“FIRST Tech Challenge is a life-changing program that goes way beyond just building robots,” Coach Burklund said. “FTC encompasses what our workforce needs including teamwork, critical thinking skills, problem-solving, public speaking, entrepreneurship and direct application of knowledge.”

Beta is among more than 2,500 FTC teams from across the globe, of which just 5 percent advance to compete at the championships. Of that 5 percent, Beta was the overall world champion. The team also beat out 135 Iowa teams to win the Inspire Award at the state competition to automatically advance to the world championships.

Teams are judged on criteria including robot build and design, the engineering notebook, teamwork and community outreach.  

“It’s awesome to receive an achievement that not only reflects our performance at the event but our dedication and diligence throughout the entire season,” Schweitzer said.

The team was also nominated for the Connect Award, which is judged on connections with local community and the engineering community, and the Think Award, which is given to the team that best reflects the journey the team took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season through documentation in their engineering notebook. Only the top six in each category are nominated for these awards, and by being nominated in two or more of six award categories, the team was eligible for the Inspire Award and title of FTC FIRST World Champion.

Watch another interview on YouTube: Chase Schweitzer in interview after awards ceremony.

 “I am so honored to coach such an amazing team of people that are changing STEM education in our state and around the globe,” added Coach Burklund. “These young leaders are changing the world.”

The team has been innovators throughout the competition season with their tele-connection project, where they were able to ship a robot across the globe and compete with it remotely. During a competition in the Australian Championships, Beta became the first team ever to score competition points remotely.

A sport for the mind, FTC is designed for high school students who want to compete head to head using a sports model. Teams of up to 10 students are responsible for designing, building and programming their robots to compete on a 12’x12’ field in an Alliance format against other teams. Robots are built using a TETRIX® platform that is reusable from year-to-year using a variety of languages. Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles. Awards are given for the competition as well as community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments. Students get to:

• Learn from professional engineers
• Build and compete with a robot of their own design
• Learn and use sophisticated software and hardware
• Compete and cooperate in alliances and tournaments
• Earn a place in the World Championship
• Qualify for over $16 million in college scholarships

Click here for more information on the FIRST Tech Challenge and the FIRST programs.

LINK UP WITH WEST DES MOINES PATCH: Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Have West Des Moines news delivered to your inbox every morning by signing up for our free newsletter.