Luke Buckner, Mark Buckner, and Tag Groff in the drivers’ station at the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship in St. Louis this past weekend. (Photo by Angi Agle)
The Secret City Wildbots team received an Excellence in Engineering award at the FIRST Robotics World Championships in St. Louis this past weekend, Oak Ridge school officials said Monday.
“The Wildbots competed in the Archimedes Division, and after 10 tough qualification matches, earned their way into the Elimination Tournament by defeating the top-ranked team in the division in the final qualification match,” according to information from Gordon F. Williams, engineering instructor, Oak Ridge High School Engineering and Robotics Academy, and FIRST Robotics Team 4265 coach and sponsor.
Williams said the Secret City Wildbots, Team 4265, formed an alliance team consisting of Team 20, The Rocketeers (from Clifton Park, N.Y.); Team 195, The Cyber Knights (from Southington, Conn.); and Team 4077, MASH (from Edmonds, Wash.) that was eliminated in the quarterfinals round.
“The team competed at the highest level in the FIRST Robotics community and earned the respect and admiration of many of the older, more experienced teams for their abilities and gracious professionalism, quite an accomplishment for a third-year team,” Williams said. “Oak Ridge Schools, the City of Oak Ridge, and the Smoky Mountains Regional FIRST family were well represented by this fine group of young adults.”
The Wildbots team was awarded the Excellence in Engineering award for their design of their robot’s drive system.
“This unique system was recognized as innovative, creative, and robustly engineered to achieve at the highest levels in FIRST Robotics,” Williams said. “The secret is out, the Wildbots are a team to be reckoned with.”
Williams said more than 2,700 teams competed in this year’s challenge, with 400 reaching the championship event. Of those, only four teams received this honor.
“I would like to thank our lead mentor Dr. Mark Buckner and mentor Chuck Agle, along with team mentors Lisa Buckner and Norma Franco, for their tireless efforts on behalf of the students of Team 4265,” Williams said. “Their countless hours and leadership of these students has given them an opportunity to create and achieve, an opportunity that they (the students) have taken to the highest levels. The students are were already planning for next year’s season on the bus ride home yesterday…and a fourth trip in a row to St. Louis.”
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