Results from the FIRST Robotics Competition Midwest Regional

Warren’s Team E.L.I.T.E. 48 and Team 379, the Girard RoboCats, competed this weekend at the Midwest Regional in Chicago, IL. The event had 46 teams from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, and as far away as Ankara, Turkey, to name a few.

Team E.L.I.T.E. (Encouraging Learning In Technology and Engineering) went 5W-6L in qualification rounds seeding 24th while the RoboCats went 7W-4L seeding 13th. During alliance selection, the RoboCats became the 8th alliance captain and selected Team E.L.I.T.E. and team 2013, the Cybergnomes, from Ontario, Canada. During the double elimination rounds, the RoboCats alliance went 3W-2L and finished the event ranked 3rd.

Both the RoboCats and Team E.L.I.T.E. will now return home to iterate on their creations and meet again at the Buckeye Regional, March 30-April 1, and the Pittsburgh Regional, April 6-8. If either qualifies during those events, they will advance to the FIRST World Championship in Houston, TX, April 19-22.

The teams compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition which challenges High School students from around the world to build a new robot each year to compete in a new challenge. Teams are given roughly 6 weeks to design, protype, build, program, and test their robots before competing at events.

: Students Michael Whiddon, Zosia Dupont, and Sarah Herko prepare their robot for another match alongside mentors Frank Bosak, Frank Shively, and Alex Richards.

: Mentor, Matthew Jones, guides Student, Raina Bacon, through a checklist before a match.

: Student, Mallory Gannon, catches a yellow game piece during robot testing

: Mentor, Trevor Donley, works with Student, Michael Whiddon, to test a recent programming change.

: Students Levi Flowers, Michael Whiddon, Matthew Marksberry, Sarah Herko, Zosia Dupont, and Courtney Wilcox speak with judges about their robot and team.