Health & Fitness
Robotics Rock at UCHS!
The University City Robolions, UCHS's own FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team competed in the St. Louis Regional FIRST Robotics Championship.
What do you get when you mix a few hundred kids with A+ geek credentials, dedicated adult volunteers, representatives from the country’s top science and technology corporations and universities, sky-high energy, the steady beat of techno pop, and some of the coolest robots you will ever see? A FIRST Robotics Competition, that’s what!
Last weekend (March 15th & 16th, 2013) The University City Robolions, UCHS’s own FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team competed along with 40 other high school teams from Missouri and surrounding states in the St. Louis Regional FIRST Robotics Championship.
This was the fourth regional championship for the Robolions, FRC team 3397. The team was founded in 2010, and has been growing in size and ability ever since.
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The twenty-some members of the team spend hundreds of hours over the course of the school year in pursuit of robot perfection. Beginning with a kickoff in January, teams from around the world (2,548 in 2013) receive a game challenge and a kit of parts. With the help of coaches and mentors (the Robolions’ mentors are from Boeing) they are given six weeks to design, engineer, build, and program a robot from scratch to perform the tasks required for the game. This year’s game is called ULTIMATE ASCENT and challenges robots to do things like pick up Frisbees, shoot Frisbees at targets and climb a metal pyramid. Teams also look for opportunities to practice Gracious Professionalism, a key component of the FIRST programs.