Thanks in great part to the generosity of many members of the Whitewater community, twenty-one student members of Ferradermis, along with nine of their mentors, were able to travel to Houston, Texas from April 16 – 21 for the FIRST Robotics Championships. The championships, held at the George R. Brown Convention Center, featured over 600 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Teams as well as FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Teams from all over the world. Over 50,000 people attended the event.
Ferradermis had qualified for the championships by winning the Impact Award in Duluth in early March. In Houston, senior Cosette Wildermuth-Breitzman, junior Maddi LaHaie, and sophomore Belle Cohen were again able to present to a panel of judges on behalf of the team to make their case that Ferradermis has made a lasting impact on their community and state in terms of developing respect and passion for science and technology. These three also served as official ambassadors throughout the week, providing tours to VIPs. (Maddi even gave a tour to representatives of the CIA!) Team 2486, CocoNuts, from Flagstaff, Ariz., won the FIRST Impact Award at Champs.
FRC teams that qualify for Champs are somewhat randomly divided into eight fields, each named for a famous scientist. Each field determines a winning alliance, and then those eight winners face off on the Einstein field to determine the World Champion. The Drive Team of junior Andrew O’Toole, senior Kay Mikos, sophomore Erison Dreksler, and sophomore Nina Heim led the Ferradermis robot on to the Hopper field, named for computer science pioneer Grace Hopper, to compete with and against 75 teams from 28 US states and 7 other countries including Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, Mexico, Turkey, China, and Australia. The eight fields are laid out end-to-end and stretch over 1/4 mile.
The Ferradermis robot, Chief Lee the Tangerine, came out strong, winning its first three matches, before experiencing some interesting issues. In one match, the 3D printed wheels on the shooting mechanism literally exploded on the field after a collision with the wall. In another match, a hard collision with a group of other robots resulted in a loose electrical connection that left Chief chugging across the field for the rest of the match. Ferradermis concluded the qualification matches with a record of 4-6, and did not make it into the elimination round. Overall on the season, Ferradermis played 50 matches, going 23-27. Statistically, Ferradermis ends the year ranked in the top 26% of teams in the world.
The World Championship Winning Alliance consisted of Team 1690, Orbit, from Binyamina, Israel, Team 4522, Team SCREAM, from Sedalia, Mo., Team 9432, Team 8-Bit, from Phoenix, Ariz., and Team 321, RoboLancers, from Philadelphia, Pa.
Wisconsin was represented in Texas by 9 FRC teams – Ferradermis, the Mukwonago Bears, MORE Robotics from St. Thomas More High School, the Hilltoppers from Marquette University High School, Round Table Robotics from Oak Creek, Nicolet FEAR, The Knack from Lake Country School in Hartland, Wave from Oshkosh, and TC Robotics, a community team from Arcadia. None of the Wisconsin teams made it onto Einstein. Ferradermis is thankful for the camaraderie and gracious professionalism of all of these teams for their support before, during, and after Champs. The team would like to give a special shout-out to Mukwonago for allowing us to make multiple trips to their full practice field this season and to Round Table and their sponsor Aim Transport for coordinating transportation of our robot and pit materials to Houston and back. We are also thankful to the programming team from the Muskego WarriorBots for spending a day with our programmers in our workspace before we left for Houston.
Ferradermis was also able to connect with several of our old mentors at the event. We were excited to be playing on the same field as BREAD, a highly successful team from Redwood City, California, now mentored by former Whitewater Generac engineer and Ferradermis Head Coach Carissa Petzinger. Former Ferradermis Head Coach Dilpreet Randhawa was in attendance with the RoboJackets, his new team from Auburn Hills, Michigan. Former Ferradermis Mentor Payton Jackson was there as well with his new team the Robonauts; the Robonauts are supported by NASA, which is where Payton is working in Houston. Ferradermis members were enthralled by the Robonauts’ workspace, which they were able to visit as part of an open house.
In between matches, students had the opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops as well as visit the Innovation Fair and Scholarship Row. In addition to working hard at the event for four straight days, Ferradermis members found time to visit Space Center Houston on the day they arrived and the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston on the day they headed home.
Ferradermis will be open to new members beginning this summer. If you’ve ever wanted to see the robot in action, you can catch it at several off-season events this summer in Mukwonago, Kettle Moraine, Rockford, and potentially Eau Claire. You can also see demonstrations of the robot this Saturday at the International Children’s Day event, next Saturday at the Whitewater Storytelling Festival, and May 18 at the STEAM Faire at Whitewater High School.
Article and Photos Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Robotics Advisor
lmasbruch@wwusd.org
