WHS Robotics Team Competes Twice in March

This past weekend, Westborough High School's FIRST robotics team Redshift competed in its second of two New England District Events of 2018. The Rhode Island District Event (RIDE) took place on the campus of Bryant University in Smithfield Rhode Island. Three weeks prior, Redshift competed in a similar competition (WPI) on the campus of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester.

Both competitions consisted of 41 teams from New England. Each team played in randomly assigned alliances of three-on-three matches in a game called "Power Up". The theme of Power Up is the old video game arcade. Power Cubes (nylon covered milk crates) are placed on "Switches" and "Scale" to score points. Power Boosts can also be strategically played for additional points. Each match starts with a 15 seconds of pre-programmed autonomous period followed by 2:15 of tele-operated play. The game is fairly complex and requires quick thinking and solid teamwork in each alliance. Each team plays 12 matches in the qualifying round. They are then ranked and 24 teams in eight alliances of three teams each advance to the elimination round.

Redshift's robot proved to be overly complex and was not very robust. It performed poorly at WPI and did not advance to the elimination round. Inbetween events, the robot design was updated, new parts were made and the improved robot was much better at RIDE; good enough to advance to the elimination round in the 3rd seeded alliance. Unfortunately the quarterfinals was as far as they would go.

At both Events, Redshift won the Imagery Award. This award "celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration of machine and team appearance". The team's imagery group made costumes for the Drive Team, hats (in the style of Mario Brothers) for all team members, props to show team spirit and decorations for the pit. This was a wonderful acknowledgement for the students who worked tirelessly on the Team's image.

Redshift consists of 69 students in grades 9 to 12. The team wishes to acknowledge the generous support of its sponsors - Solidworks, Intel, Bose, Abbvie, Bainwood Huang, Boston Scientific, Daniels Insurance, Raytheon, Xilinx and Walmart.

Students (of any age) interested in robotics and/or adults wishing to be mentors (hardware, software, outreach, fund raising, etc.) can contact the team through the team's web site at http://team4048.org.