City, county schools take on robotics challenge
Tharptown students tweak their robot at the BEST Robotics Competition, held Oct. 10 at NW-SCC.
By Brandi Miller for the FCT
There was a huge crowd inside the Northwest-Shoals Community College gymnasium Oct. 10. There were cheerleaders, mascots, dance teams, loud music and rowdy student sections. It wasn’t an early basketball game. It was the annual 2015 Northwest Alabama BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.
It was a special day for Red Bay High School. For the first time in the school’s history, RBHS had a robotics team competing in the major event. That didn’t intimidate the students from RBHS, and they were very close to making it to the next round of the competition in their first year to compete.
“These kids almost made it to (South’s BEST Regional Championship at Auburn University) their first year, and that is unheard of,” said robotics sponsor Leah Torisky. “Next year, we are out for number one.”
The robotics team, sponsored by RBHS science teacher Torisky and RBHS math teacher Greg Cash, is a new class this year. There are 18 students, and this competition was their first experience with anything like this before.
Phil Campbell robotics students show off their booth at the BEST Robotics Competition.
Hosted by Northwest-Shoals Community College and the Shoals Chamber of Commerce, the competition included 24 schools, challenged to design and engineer a robot that could accomplish a specific set of tasks to rack up the most points and the fewest penalties.
This year’s competition was themed Pay Dirt, and each team had to design a robot to accomplish various tasks in a simulated mine. As the teams extracted the various ore contained in the fictitious mine, the ore’s values (point value) changed. Depending on which ore were mined, teams had to adjust their mining strategies accordingly.
Tharptown puts their robot through its paces
“The day of the competition was amazing,” said Torisky. “It was really like being at a huge sporting event, like state championship basketball, but everyone is cheering for a robot. Our drivers and trade show booth workers handled the pressure very well.”
From Franklin County, in addition to Red Bay, Phil Campbell, Tharptown and Russellville competed.
Phil Campbell placed 12th overall in points and received two second place awards: for Best Craftsmanship Robot, for a good strong design, and for Most Robust Robot, meaning they didn’t have to fix the robot much in the course of the competition.
Tharptown won third place in best team exhibit and interview.
Red Bay students show off their robot.
Red Bay finished in third place overall and received many additional awards: third place in best teamwork, third place in best marketing presentation, third place in best website design, first place in best video, first place in best robot craftsmanship, first place in most photogenic robot, first place in best mascot, first place in best costume, first place in best team exhibit and interview.
Russellville placed third in Spirit and Sportsmanship and third for the Founder’s Award for Creative Design.
“I thought it went really well,” said PCHS sponsor Jonathan Grimes. “I thought we did a good job. For my students, it was their first year … They enjoyed it. They loved it. They were kind of not sure about it at first … but now they’re excited about it. They’re ready for it to come back next year.”
“I felt like the team did really well this year,” said RHS sponsor Mark Keeton. “We might not have won the competition, but there were many small personal victories for our team as a whole. I saw, as one team member put it: They ‘went from being a team to being a family.'”
“It was a great experience,” said RBHS robotics member Tate Ozbirn. “Our team did really well, and I can’t wait to see where we are able to go from here.”
Torisky and Cash said they plan to continue the robotics class at RBHS. They both said watching the students take the different things they are learning in robotics class and apply them to real life experiences and situations has been amazing to watch.
“I am so proud of our kids,” said Cash. “In six weeks, they were able to build a very competitive robot and develop a marketing plan to promote it. For a first year program with no experience, I think we impressed many people at the competition. We were so close to advancing to the next round, and that should serve as motivation for our kids to continue to work hard so that next year we can advance to South’s Best in Auburn.”
RBHS robotics team members are Carlee Humphres, Chandler Allen, Daniel Lindsey, Darby Madden, Ethan Mobley, Gath Weatherford, Holly Hardin, Isaiah Jackson, Jace Pounds, Jamal Anderson, Katie Burks, Kelly Miller, Luke Stanford, Morgan Pierce, Reed Holt, Sydney Hardin, Tate Ozbirn and Taylor Cash.
RHS robotics team members are Nathan Medley, Tal Hamilton, Airreon McCulloch, Greyson Studdard, Malachy Fleming, Aidan Fuller, Eli Franks, Kyle Hawkins, Aleo Wallace, Devan Guzman, Emma Reed, Priscilla Tristan, Deshayla Hammoc, Sydney Bowling, Yohalani Mojica, Avery Guinn, Makayla Gann, Zakery Colburn, Abigail Dodson, Max Moussad, Katie Burns, Kendrick Duncan, Bernie Moussad, Niles Butts, Tristan Patric, McKinely Copeland, Sierra Prince, Autumn Prince, Odalys Gerardo-Rendon, Kaitlynn Hintz, Charles Gordon, Chelsea Suddith, Katelyn Carpenter, Jessica Morrow, Cady Studdard, Andrew Heath, Mia Gann and Cristian Ruiz.
PCHS robotics team members are Eric Allen, Austin Berry, Eli Campbell, Amber Ergle, Jazmyn Ergle, Karlee Faust, Katie Foster, Rilan Garrison, Star Gentry, Elizabeth Guerrero, Abigail Hunderman, Eli Jackson, Jacalia Jetton, Jonathan McCarley, Tent McCulloch, Cypress Quinn, Emily Riner, Hunter Saint, Khloie Simpson, Katelee Smith, Emily Swinney, Ben Williams and Jacob Gere.
THS robotics team members are Michael Dalrymple, Jaden Laster, Savana Franks, Coleman Warhurst, David Vargas, Emilia Bahena, Linda Bahena, Emma Henderson, Jonathan Henderson, Hannah Hardin, Courtney Murphree, Braden Key, Joseph Thompson, Eden Cooper, Caitlin Carruth, Lydia Henderson and Annslee Bottoms.
BEST Robotics’ long-term goal strives for students to become interested in careers in S.T.E.M. disciplines.
In addition to the robotics game challenge, the students must compile a comprehensive Project Engineering Notebook and are encouraged to develop an entire “company” around their product. Each team had the option to compete in an oral marketing presentation and to design and build a trade show booth, a website, a video commercial for their product, T-shirt designs and more.
Macy Reeves and Bart Moss contributed to this story.
