On December 16, the three teams that make up the Needham High School Robotics Club attended a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Qualifier, where they competed against 20 other teams for an opportunity to attend the state tournament. The three teams "T-10," "HackHers" (girls only), and "Liquid Oxygen" (mostly freshman) designed, built, and programmed robots to stack blocks in scoring towers, balance their robot on a platform, and perform other tasks in order to earn points for their team. In the seeding rounds, they placed in 7th, 6th, and 17th, respectively. T-10 and the HackHers both made it to the final rounds, and both teams competed against each other in the final matches of the tournament. T-10's alliance won the finals. T-10 also won a design award for their robot, and the HackHers received the 2nd place Connect Award for their outreach and connections with the Needham community.
The FTC competition starts in September, and runs until March or beyond depending on how far the teams advance. Last year, both T-10 and the HackHers competed in the MA State finals. In September, the Needham teams hosted the Massachusetts FTC kickoff, where many teams from the region came to Needham High School for a morning of learning, a robotics talk by Needham resident and MIT Robotics Prof. Russ Tedrake, and the unveiling of this year's competition, called "Relic Recovery." On December 9, the NHS Robotics club hosted 12 other teams for a scrimmage in the NHS cafeteria, where other teams came to test their ideas and designs in a competition setting similar to an actual qualifier.
In addition to the competitions, the teams perform outreach to get other students excited about technology and STEM. They have demonstrated their robots at many events, such as elementary school science days, and encourage younger students to try robotics by hosting a First Lego League (FLL) Night in May, which helps Needham families form teams for students in grades 5 through 8. High school students have even mentored some of the FLL teams in town.
The Robotics Club at NHS has been promoting STEM in a fun and engaging way. Many students from the club go on to study robotics or engineering in college. The next competition will be on January 27 at Andover High School. This event is open to the public, and all are invited to come out and support the three Needham teams. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/NeedhamRobotics.
