19 Mar Teams advance to world robotics competition
Six teams from the Kansas City area will be moving on to compete in the world robotics championship competition in St. Louis after winners of this weekend’s Greater Kansas City Regional FIRST Robotics competition were announced Saturday night.
The competition’s top award went to the UP Next Community Team, composed of home-schooled students and students from schools throughout the region that did not field a team.
Other area teams that qualified for the world championship: Lee’s Summit West High School, the Independence School District, Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, Smithville High School and North Kansas City High School.
More than 1,000 high school students on 58 teams took part in the competition at the Metropolitan Community College-Business and Technology campus at 1775 Universal Ave.
In this year’s competition, students worked with professional mentors to design and build robots for a game called Aerial Assist, in which the robots throw and catch balls and attempt to score as many goals as possible during a two-minute and 30-second match.
The world championship competition is April 23-26.
At the weekend competition, Honeywell received the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award.
Some of the awards earned by area teams or individuals at the weekend competition:
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award: Gavin Wood, mentor, The Barstow School, Team 1939.
Xerox Creativity Award: Paseo Academy of the Arts, Team 1763.
Chrysler Team Spirit Award: Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, Team 1775.
Jack Kamen Honorary Imagery Award: The Barstow School, Team 1939.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award: Lee’s Summit High School, Team 1730.
General Motors Industrial Design Award: Lee’s Summit North High School Team 1987.
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism Award: JC Harmon High School, Team 1769, Kansas City, Kan.
Motorola Quality Award School: Piper High School, Team 1802.
Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award: Lee’s Summit West High School, Team 1986.
Judges’ Award: Blue Valley CAPS, Team 2410, Overland Park.
Rookie Inspiration Award: Olathe South High School, Team 5268.
Highest Rookie Seed Award: Lawrence Free State High School, Team 5119, Lawrence.
Dean’s List Finalist (Outstanding Student Leadership): Cameron Lerch, Lee’s Summit West High School.
