Robotic team heads to world championship

The Newberg High School robotics “Tiger Team” captured one of three Oregon slots advancing to world championships in the FIRST Tech Challenge.

The Tiger Team placed third in judging for the Inspire Award, the competition’s top honor, and fourth alliance in the state championship competition held Saturday, February 26th in Hillsboro, Oregon. The Inspire Award is given to the team with a stellar in-the-ring performance as well as good sportsmanship and community service. The Newberg team earned second place Inspire Awards in both qualifying tournaments held earlier this year.

This marks the Tiger Team’s second straight appearance at the State Championships. Team members include juniors Tyler Krupicka, Anthony Farr, Michael Peterson, Alvin Yu, Steven Bell, Kolby Louis and freshmen Andrew Almquist and A.J. Spivey. Ted Krupicka, parent, and NHS engineering teacher Terry Coss coach the team. Matt Greensmith, school district technology specialist is a volunteer mentor.

The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge (FTC) is a national robotics competition for teams of high school-aged youth. Teams design and build robots that compete with other teams to complete a set of prescribed tasks. The program is designed to increase the interest of young people in science and technology and build practical teamwork and life skills (planning, problem-solving, communications, etc.) through an intensive, hands-on, team-based engineering experience. This year’s contest, called “Bowled Over”, challenges teams to push bowling balls up ramps and lift plastic crates to increase points based on height. The NHS “Tiger Team” used a high-speed ball collector and scissor jack to raise plastic crates with racquetballs six feet above their normally 18 inch high robot. (see photos and video links below)

NHS math teacher Paul Schierholtz, who judged regional competition at OMSI, says there is a lot of deliberation and assessment behind the scenes to determine the winning teams. "A team may do well in the competitive arena," said Schierholtz, "but they must present a complete package to the different areas of the judging as well. This is truly an amazing achievement for this team and they deserve the accolades." 

The FIRST Tech Challenge International Championship will be held is St. Louis, Missouri, April 25-28, 2012.