After three exciting days participating in the inaugural FIRST Minnesota Regional Robotics competition, events concluded with Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816-The Green Machine being awarded the Regional Chairman’s Award, FIRST’s most prestigious award.
The Regional Chairman’s Award celebrates the FIRST robotics team which, in the judges estimation, “best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST,” of which the goal is to inspire greater levels of respect and appreciation for science and technology. In the opinion of the judges at this year’s event, the team meets the criteria for the award. Team 1816 has inspired, helped and mentored other schools around the State of Minnesota to start new FRC teams; hosted seminars, including Minnesota Splash, for rookie teams, and has mentored younger students via FIRST Lego League teams in Edina. Inspiration is truly at the heart of this year’s presentation of the Regional Chairman’s Award to The Green Machine. Upon learning that The Green Machine started in the home kitchen of the team’s captain, students, teachers and others throughout Minnesota started thinking that the impossible may just be possible. With the dramatic increase of FIRST Robotics teams in Minnesota, growing from two teams in 2005 to 54 teams in 2008, it all but guaranteed there had to be a FIRST robotics regional competition in Minnesota this year.
By winning the Regional Chairman’s Award, Team 1816 is now invited to the FIRST Championships in Atlanta, GA, April 17-19, where the team will compete against 40 other Regional Chairman’s recipients for the National Chairman’s Award. The team thanks its corporate sponsors: Medtronic, Inc.; Ecolab, Honeywell, Wanner Engineering, and FWR Communication Networks, as well as the staff and administration of Edina High School, for all of the support, enthusiasm, and ongoing financial contributions. Our team’s success would not be possible without you!
During the competition seeding matches, the team’s robot, “Zerkit,” performed better than initially expected ( Catch all of the action from the Minnesota Regional). While Zerkit began the qualification rounds on Friday morning with two losses in a row, the team rebounded and won each of the remaining seven matches to finish the qualification rounds with a 7-2 record and be the number four-ranked robot out of 54 robots at the conclusion of the qualifying rounds. Turns out, those initial two losses were at the hands of Team 525-Swart-Dogs, Cedar Rapids, IA, a team that qualified as the number one seed and the eventual head of the winning alliance at the regional competition.
In alliance selections Saturday morning, The Green Machine was thrilled to be able to select partners as the head of the 3rd seeded alliance (The Swart-Dogs selected the second-seeded team, Team 93-New Apple Corps, Appleton, Wis., moving Team 1816 up a spot). The Green Machine selected none other than Team 2169-King TeC, Prior Lake High School, Savage, MN, who also happened to be regional finalists at the Wisconsin Regional two weeks prior. Team 2401-Patriots of Mayville, ND, rounded out the alliance. A special thanks to these great alliance partners! Sadly, our alliance was eliminated in the quarterfinal rounds, due in part to Zerkit mysteriously losing power at the beginning of a match. The team plans a full diagnostic of Zerkit before taking the field in Atlanta!
A wave of the checkered flag goes to the teams and robots that made up the winning alliance at the regional: Team 525-Swart Dogs; Team 93-New Apple Corps, Appleton, WI; and Team 2518-Spartans, Simley High School. Also deserving of recognition is the all Minnesotan Regional Finalists Alliance comprised of Team 2239-Technocrats, Hopkins High School, Hopkins, MN; Team 2177-The Robettes, Convent of the Visitation High School, Mendota Heights, MN, and Team 2513-T.E.R.T.O.L.A, Thomas Edison High School, Minneapolis. Complete Awards Listing.
With the inaugural FIRST Minnesota Regional now in the record books, Team 1816 now turns its eyes toward the Championships in Atlanta!