MS Robotics Teams Take On State Tournament

By Robotics Coach Adam Colestock
On Saturday, January 15, all four of our MS Robotics teams, Bots Go BRRR!!!, Spicy Chicken, Escargot and Stern Sail-Oars, traveled to Elgin Community College to compete in the FLL Illinois State Tournament, which they had qualified for by performing well and garnering awards at their tournaments in December.

Each of the teams had several extra meetings between qualifying and state to refine their robot designs and continue to research and prototype their innovation projects. This year’s innovation projects related to transporting cargo safely and efficiently. Teams put a lot of time and energy into researching and developing proposed solutions that could help improve people’s lives and the health of the planet.

Bots Go BRRR!!! explored how advances in understanding whale communication using AI might provide opportunities to keep endangered animals safer and prevent cargo ship strikes.

Spicy Chicken put their time and energy into considering how public transportation on buses might be made more accessible to people in wheelchairs.

Escargot proposed a way that clean -room technology might make more affordable algae-based biofuels a reality someday.

Stern-Sail Oars made the argument for further research and applic
ation of wind power to propel cargo ships using a specially designed modern sail called a Flettner rotor to reduce the carbon footprint of the shipping industry.

Each team also improved their robots and programming and had success running their robots at the table. In a very competitive field of 33 teams, the teams ran their robots three times at the competition table with their highest of the three runs accounting for one quarter of their overall score for the tournament. The other three quarters of the score came from three presentations to a panel of judges about the design of their robot and their innovation project, as well as how they exemplified FLL’s core values throughout the season to work more effectively as a team.

Bots Go BRRR!!! had a high score of 185 pts (32nd place)
Spicy Chicken had a high score of 235 pts (25th place)
Escargot had a high score of 305 pts (16th place)
Stern Sail-Oars had a high score of 270 pts (19th place)

Three of the four teams were able to improve upon their previous scores. 

I hope you will join me in congratulating all who participated and represented Parker at the tournament!

Bots Go BRRR!! 
Dhruv Moorthy (8th)
Calvin Cheng (7th)
Cameron Jackson (7th)*
Aarav Rajput (7th)
C.J. Coward (6th)
Cyrus Hohman (6th)
Will McPharlin (6th)
Zade Rahman (6th)
Sloane Trukenbrod (6th)
Coaches: Adam Colestock and Letrianna Gross

Spicy Chicken
Lia Bahri (8th)*
Victoria Grove (8th)
Julian Hirsch (8th)
Nia Nashashibi (8th)
Solena Ornelas Pagnucci (8th)
Oliver Charfoos (6th)
Wallace Davis (6th)*
Sophia Piotrowski (6th)
Olive Katerina Bracken Sáenz (6th)
Mia Scala (6th)
Coaches: JP Navin and Mike McPharlin 

Escargot
Daniel Chang (8th)
Max Satterfield (8th)
Miles Gardner (7th)
Gavin Maness (7th)
Ashley Webster (7th)
Shriya Chaudhari (6th)
Annabelle Kutcher (6th)
Cason Prokup (6th)
Coaches: JP Navin and Letrianna Gross

Stern Sail-Oars
Spencer Koh (8th)
Chase Wayland (8th)
Nina Zaldivar (8th)
Sam Goldblatt (7th)
Dev Weiss (7th)
Coaches: Adam Colestock

*Not in attendance at the tournament on Saturday