The Iowa First Technical Challenge (FTC) Robotics Championship will be held at the University of Iowa’s Main Ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union Saturday, Feb. 26. The tournament is free and open to the public. Mount Vernon has entered two teams in the tournament:
#458 (Operate Go Initiative!).
Team members: Project Manager: Forrest Scott; Build Team: Stephen Gruber Miller, Nicholas Liberko, Ben Lyon; Programming Team: Matthew Lichty, Daniel Riechers, Matt Peiffer; Marketing Team: Lynaea Kiefer, Tim Gruber Miller, Ashley Neal.
#3549 (Robotinists).
Team members: Project Manager: Abigail Chihak; Build Team: Kayla Burkhart, Paul Chihak, Macon, Programming Team: Hunter Lind, Robert Banwart, Alex White. Marketing Team: Catie Sheehy, Mildred Chihak, Claire Gruver-Pandich.
Team mentors: Chris Lyon, Ryan Moffit, Beth Riechers, DeAnn Scearce, Gary Scott, Cheryl Sheehy, and Jerry Sheehy.
FTC is a branch of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), which was founded by Inventor Dean Kamen in 1989. FIRST also runs FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC). Attending Saturday’s tournament will be another founding member, MIT professor Woodie Flowers.
Schedule:
Opening Ceremony: 10:45 am.
Qualification matches: 10:15 am.
Alliance selection: 3:45 pm.
Semi-final matches: 4:30 pm.
Final matches: 5:30 pm
Closing ceremony: 6:15 pm.
Pictured in featured photo are Alex White, Macon, Hunter Lind, Ben Lyon, Matthew Lichty, Forrest Scott who competed with their robots in a scrimmage in Oelwein on Feb. 12. Photo courtesy of Richard Scearce.
The link to the opening kick-off video, which gives instructions on this year’s game, “Get Over It!” is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6R8QdpL94I&feature=related
