RCS Engineering students pose with their trophies after their regional competition on Nov. 1.

For the fourth year in a row, RCS Engineering students secured a trip to the South’s BEST Championship competition in December after winning several awards at the Northwest Alabama BEST Hub competition on Nov. 1.

The competition, which was held at the Muscle Shoals campus of Northwest-Shoals Community College, featured 23 teams from north Alabama and southern Tennessee.

Out of those 23 teams, RCS Engineering was one of three teams to secure a spot at the South’s BEST Championship competition that will be held in Auburn Dec. 5-7.

RCS Engineering, which is comprised of 43 students in grades 6-12, was judged on several categories including a robot the students built themselves; a trade show booth marketing their business, accomplishments and products; a project engineering notebook; and spirit and sportsmanship.

The group came in second place in the BEST Award category – an award named after the competition’s sponsor, BEST Robotics, Inc., which is a non-profit and volunteer-based organization whose purpose is to get middle and high school students interested in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The award means RCS Engineering came in second place overall in the regional competition and it was the award that helped the group advance to the championship competition.

“The students did a great job,” said Lee Brownell, a teacher at Russellville Middle School and the sponsor for RCS Engineering.

“I am very proud of the team for several reasons. First, though, is their reaction to the problems we had in the semifinals. In order to assure your team a position at Auburn, the robot must come in first or second. In the semifinals, we thought we only had to beat four teams to make the finals and we were pretty sure our last two drivers could get us at least a second place finish in the finals.

“However, in the semifinals, we had two drivers that had some tragedies. But instead of being upset that we may not go to Auburn, the team was worried about those kids. They hugged them and told them it was okay. It really made me happy to see that.

“Winning isn’t everything, and even though we ended up getting second place overall, there is a lot to learn at the competition and I am happy they learned that supporting each other is the key to success.”

In addition to the second-place BEST Award, the group also won seven other awards: first place for Most Elegant Robot, second place for Spirit and Sportsmanship, second place for Most Innovative Design, third place for Robot Construction, third place for CAD Design, third place for Most Robust Robot and third place for the Founder’s Award.

Brownell was also awarded the first “Toyota Teacher Leadership Award” for the Northwest Alabama BEST Hub for going above and beyond to help and encourage the students throughout this competition process, and demonstrating the qualities of resect and continuous improvement that also represent the “Toyota Way”.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama general manager Wes Woods said Brownell was a shining example of all this award represents.

“[Lee] has always demonstrated such a strong commitment to his students,” Woods said. “I have seen him teaching, leading, encouraging, and sacrificing for them.

“Lee is also doing so many other innovative things that challenge his students to continuously improve their individual and collective problem solving skills. [His] perseverance is providing a great service to our communities and ultimately to the success of companies such as Toyota when his students enter the workforce.”

Brownell said the group received feedback from the judges and the students have already been studying those notes and making changes and improvements for the championship competition in December.

“During this time before the championships in Auburn, the team can revamp their booth, presentation and robot, and they are taking advantage of the time doing just that,” Brownell said.

“The robot is getting a big makeover. They found that the field was much more cramped than our practice field, so they made the robot smaller. Doing this made the robot tip over, so they removed the mass from the back, but that meant that the cam couldn’t lift the arm, so they redesigned the cam and created a transmission with a set of gears they cut out of our CNC machine.”

Brownell said the group is also making changes to their booth and presentation based on the feedback they received, and they hope to do well going up against 54 teams from the South’s BEST region, which includes Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.