Robotics brings home the win

On February 11, 2023, the THS robotics team placed third place in the First Chesapeake District FTC Championship. This was a big win for the Robotics Team because of the competition and the impact that it will have. This might bring more people to the robotics team, and could create a sense of Trojan pride for the whole school. Team 17150 earned the following for their work: Third place team for the Think Award, Third place team for the Innovate Award, and Third place for the Compass Award.

Each award represents a unique accomplishment that judges feel the team has made.

Think Award

“This judged award is given to the team that best reflects the journey the team took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season.”

Innovate Award

“The Innovate Award celebrates a team that thinks outside the box and has the ingenuity, creativity, and inventiveness to make their designs come to life.”

Compass Award

“The Compass Award recognizes an adult coach or mentor who has given outstanding guidance and support to a Team throughout the year and demonstrates to the Team what it means to be a Gracious Professional.”

C.J. Frazier is a 10th grader who is the leader/president of the robotics team. “We used a robot from last year, so it took a solid month to build and perfect the robot,” said Frazier.

“The robot had a sliding arm originally, but we changed it to an arm that moved up and down like a cybernetic arm. The hand had a cut rubber wheel and a thumb that was also made from a cut rubber wheel. The arm picked up a cup and moved it to a pole then dropped the cup onto the pole. Depending on how tall the pole was determined how many points the team got”, said Frazier.

There was also a circuit which was like tic tac toe or connect four game. Before each round the teams were assigned a color,” said Frazier.

Frazier felt that the robot was pretty solid, but he would probably have made it so the arm would be higher and more efficient at grabbing the cup and lifting it higher.

The third place finish was a big accomplishment for team 17150 considering the 18 teams that they were up against. Although they have concluded their sessions for the year, they aim to further their future designs in innovative ways.