Team T-Rx builds robot for competition

NORWICH – FIRST Team T-Rx 145 began building, programming and designing their robot on Jan. 6 for their 11th season competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition.

Students from Norwich, Sherburne- Earlville, Unadilla, Oxford and Bainbridge-Guilford High School Districts have been working vigorously to build a robot that will perform effectively at the Finger Lakes Regional Competition held at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) on March 9 and 10. Success at Regionals will motivate the Team T-Rx 145 to proceed onto the National Competition held in Atlanta, Ga. in April.

The publicity team has been working this year to expand the community awareness of the team’s successes and program opportunities. The FIRST Program, created by Dean Kamen, was designed to promote student interest in science, technology, engineering and math. This vision is embodied within the name FIRST which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” One goal of FIRST is to provide students with new heroes of technology and engineering in a robotic sport similar to their basketball or Nascar heroes. The worldwide program offers several scholarships, school enrichment support programs and a great opportunity for students to learn from mentors in the field and apply real life skills as they learn and have fun.

This year’s tournament is called “Rack ‘N’ Roll,” where teams must build robots that can place inner tubes on a 9 foot spider-like “Rack” to score points. In just six weeks teams from all over the world will ship their robots on exactly the same day (Feb. 20) to their perspective regional areas and then all the work must stop until the uncrating at each event. The tension and excitement is very high and the effort of the members is exhilarating to experience. One of the best parts of this huge competition is that the cornerstone of the FIRST Program is to see all members demonstrate “Gracious Professionalism.” Teams have been known to help other teams at competition repair a robot only to compete with them in the next round. While the competition is designed as a robotic sport, the real prize is that high school students learn to design build and work effectively as a team to accomplish something as extraordinary as building a robot from scratch in six weeks.