Oak Ridge Today

Secret City Wildbots competing in FIRST Robotics Competition, watch online

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Secret-City-Wildbots-Logo

The Secret City Wildbots are competing in the Palmetto Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, this weekend, and you can watch the competition online.

The competition is an intense three-day event showcasing robots developed and operated by dozens of high school teams from all over the world. (See the Palmetto Regional website here for more information.)

You can watch the competition online here: http://www.htcinc.net/portal/streams/robotics/.

The Wildbots’ first match was at 9:35 a.m. Friday. They will compete again at 10:20 a.m., 1:08 p.m., 2:38 p.m., 3:27 p.m., and 5:11 p.m. Friday. Then, they will compete at 9:31 a.m. and 11:19 a.m. Saturday to qualify for the elimination rounds Saturday afternoon. [Read more…]

Photo: Secret City Wildbots

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Secret City Wildbots at Qualification

The Secret City Wildbots drive team (L to R: Tag Groff, Alana Joldersma, Luke Buckner, Andreas Franco) prepare for one of five qualification matches on Thursday. (Photo by Angi Agle)

By Angi Agle

The Secret City Wildbots drive team, pictured above, prepared for one of five qualification matches on Thursday. The Wildbots were 2-2 at the time, having lost the first two and won the next two decisively.

There was one more qualification match remaining Thursday, five on Friday, and one Saturday. Teams are ranked on six criteria, with rankings changing rapidly depending on the performance of all teams. We won’t know until noon Saturday which teams advance to the elimination rounds. [Read more…]

ORHS Wildbots going to world championships after regional robotics win

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Secret City Wildbots FIRST Robotics Team

Oak Ridge High School’s “Wildbot” #4265 was among the winners at the Smoky Mountains Regional Robotics Challenge held this past weekend, and the team will now go to St. Louis for the World Championship. (Photo by D. Ray Smith)

By Mike Wehrenberg

The Smoky Mountains Regional High School Robotics Competition had an extremely successful event this past weekend, and Oak Ridge High School was one of the three regional winners. Collierville High School outside Memphis won the Rookie All Star award.

Both of these Tennessee high schools will receive an invitation to the world championships at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, where the Rams football team plays. About 50,000 people will be in attendance at the end of April for that competition.

This was our fourth year of competition at the Knoxville Convention Center in a game called Aerial Assist. Thirty-five teams from Tennessee competed, along with 14 teams from the surrounding states of Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It was a fantastic, “graciously professional,” and exciting event, with all the teams representing themselves, their STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs, and their ability to set and achieve goals in an powerful and emotional way.

Other Tennessee news of note: [Read more…]