Both Robotics Teams Advance to State

November 5, 2012

On Saturday, November 3, the Mount Vernon Robotics Club competed in their first Qualifying Tournament of the season at Linn-Mar High School. Out of the 21 teams competing, including Linn-Mar, CR Jefferson, Ankeny, Solon, and Benton Community. Mount Vernon’s two teams finished first and second and both qualified for the FTC-Iowa state tournament which will be held at the University of Iowa on February 23.

During the qualification matches, both teams went undefeated and tied the match they went head to head. They also won a match as alliance partners.

As the top two tournament captains, each M.V. team won the semi-finals and then went head to head for a best of three series of matches. Team 3549 came out on top and received a winning alliance trophy. Team 458 won the final alliance trophy and also received the PTC design trophy based on the Computer Assisted Drafting of their robot. Team 458 was also nominated for the Inspire Award, the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award, and the Motivate Award (see http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc for award info).

This is the 6th year that Mount Vernon has competed in FTC (FIRST Technical Challenge) and has sent 4 teams to the World Championships, including both teams last year. This year’s game is called Ring It Up!

Mount Vernon’s Robotics Club is grateful and dependent on support from many sponsors, especially the following: Rockwell Collins; Intermec; Kelly Plastics; Lochner Construction; Welter Storage; Mount Vernon Bank; and The Mount Vernon First Presbyterian Church (for the use of their space for our lab). A few weeks ago, the club was awarded a $5,000 Iowastem.org scale-up grant from the Iowa Department of Education. The club also benefits from from many volunteers, including mentors Gary Scott, Chris Lyon, Dave Keller, Lisa White, and DeAnn Scearce.