Local Students win at Robotics Shenandoah Qualifier

Eights students from local schools participated at Shenandoah Qualifier sponsored by UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science to be the top seed at the tournament.

High School robotics teams from Virginia and Maryland compete to win a place at the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship sponsored by ECPI University at St. Christopher's School in Richmond on February 24, 2018.

With FIRST Tech Challenge, high school student teams design, build, and program robots to meet a complex engineering challenge, then compete head-to-head against other teams in a high-tech sporting event. With the guidance of coaches and mentors, teams build their robots and develop a playing strategy, which includes forming alliances with other teams. Teams earn awards for robot design, creativity, documentation, community outreach, “gracious professionalism” and competition on the field.

The team:

• Design, build, and program working robots based on sound engineering principles
• Apply real-world math and science concepts
• Develop problem-solving, organizational, and team-building skills
• Compete and cooperate in alliances and tournaments
• May earn a place in the State and World Championships

The Shenandoah Tournament was by far one of the largest (29 teams) and toughest competitions. It was obvious that the teams were programming their robots and developing their game strategy as competition season continued. For our team, it was a great day on several levels. Our team won all of the qualifying matches and the continued through all the Semi-Finals and Final matches and were announced as part of the winning alliance. By winning the Final Match, the team earned a spot in the Virginia FTC Championship Tournament on February 24th, 2017 in Richmond, VA

In addition to Finals win, our robot performed well and we received “Control award” ( for programming) and “winning Alliance” Trophies.