Robotics 2012

The Rock Academy Warriors Robotics Team 4112 has had a crazy two months. The team competed in its first tournament in Los Angeles on December 10th.  The team competed well and came home with the Think Award (This 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. The Engineering Notebook is the key reference for judges to help identify the most deserving team. The team’s Engineering Notebook should focus on the design and build stage of the team’s robot. Journal entries of interest to judges for this award will include those describing the steps, brainstorms, designs, re-designs, successes, and those ‘interesting moments’ when things were not going as planned.). The team also won their division and competed in the final match and lost, ending up taking 2nd place in the tournament.

The next tournament on the calendar was the San Diego Championship tournament on January 14th. The team managed to get a spot on the CW Channel 6 morning news the day before the tournament to promote FTC Robotics. The team took away two awards from this tournament as well, the Think Award again, and the Connect Award (This award is given to the team that most connected with their local community and the engineering community. A true FIRST team is more than a sum of its parts, and recognizes that their schools and communities play an essential part to their success. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself. The team that wins this award is aggressively reaching out to engineers and exploring the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science and technology. In addition, this team has a clear fundraising goal and plan to achieve that goal.) The team was also nominated for the highest award and honor there is, the Inspire Award (The Inspire Award is the most prestigious FTC award, and is given to the team that truly embodied the ‘challenge’ of the FTC program. The team that receives this award is chosen by the judges as having best represented a role model FIRST Tech Challenge Team. The team that receives this award is a top contender for all other judging categories and is a strong competitor on the field.)

Our most recent tournament was this past weekend in Las Vegas. We made the road trip and were ready to battle. The competition was fierce throughout the day, and the Warrior's managed to place 4th in the qualifiers, making it to the quarterfinals. We chose an alliance partner that could play some good defense. We managed to knock off the number one see in the tournament who partnered up with the team that took first place in the San Diego Tournament. We were able to eliminate the Phi Alpha and Omega alliance, a daunting task. We moved into the semi-finals and were very successful there as well and took out our competition in two matches. Moving on to the Championship matches, we were unfortunately defeated and took 2nd place. Our team had the highest lifting robot there and it worked great! The team brought home the Think Award again and the Finalist Alliance Captain Award for taking 2nd place in the tournament. We were also nominated for the Promote Award (The Promote Award is given to the team that is most successful in creating a compelling video message for the public designed to change our culture and celebrate science, technology, engineering and math. Guidelines for the Promote Award - Team must present a thoughtful and high-quality video which appeals to the general public. - Strong production value is important, but the message and impact of the video are of greater weight for the judges. - Creativity in interpreting the annually assigned theme is desired. - Submissions for this award will be considered for the Inspire Award but are not required.) and we were also nominated for the Compass Award (A FIRST Tech Challenge team is about more than building robots, and competing at tournaments - it is a journey to a destination through trial and error, success and failure, with challenging new technology and obstacles to navigate where no road maps are provided. So how does a team find their way? The Compass Award recognizes an adult coach or mentor who has provided outstanding guidance and support for a team throughout the year. The winner of the Compass Award will be determined from candidates nominated by FTC team members, via a 40-60 second video submission, highlighting how their mentor has helped them become a champion team. We want to hear what sets your mentor apart.)

Everyone should be extremely proud of the Rock Academy Warrior's Robotics Team 4112!!!

We will be participating in additional outreach events throughout the coming months, so stay tuned for more news updates going forward. Attached is a list of our team highlights this year and what other teams in the community have had to say about your Rock Robotics Team.

**View a PDF of our Team Highlights!