Jonathan Unger
SEHS Robotics Reaches Out to Community in 2013 and Competes at Home and Abroad
2012-13 was a memorable year for the SEHS Robotics Team. It began over the summer, when the team reached out to communities beyond St. Edward in a variety of new ways. For two weeks in June, it held Eagle Engineering Enrichment (E³), a camp for middle school boys, who learned the basics of electronics and mechanics through a number of fun projects, including how to make “bucket cars,” motors mounted on bucket lids. On Saturday, June 24^th, the Robotics Team held an exposition at Great Northern Mall, where it created much excitement in shoppers of all ages. It marched patriotically in the Lakewood July 4^th Parade. The team closed out the summer in September by running a booth at the Our Lady of Angels Fair, where for fifty cents fairgoers could launch a t-shirt into one of four holes.
In the fall, the SEHS Robotics Team prepared for the 2013 Vex competition Sack Attack, which challenged the young engineers to build machines able to lift bean bags into troughs. This was SEHS Robotics’ second year competing in Vex and it prepared a delegation of six four-student teams. The team competed at the Great Lakes Science Center on May 18^th.
January began the team’s annual six-week sprint to design, construct, and program a robot for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). This year’s game, Ultimate Ascent, called for a robot able to launch Frisbees into goals and to climb the rungs of a pyramid tower. The team competed at the Buckeye Regional at CSU on the weekend of March 28^th with its robot “Sloth Monkey,” and at the Chesapeake regional in Baltimore a couple weeks later in April. At the FRC Buckeye Regional, the team for the first time applied for the Chairman’s Award, FIRST’s highest honor for continual community outreach. The team worked hard to compile a video, portfolio, and series of essays for the award. Although they did not receive the award, it was a new achievement for the SEHS Robotics team, which now looks forward to an even more memorable and exciting 2014.