The Coffee High Robotics Team qualified two VEX robots for the 2017 Georgia State Championship this past Saturday, January 21. The team did so by winning the Lowndes High School qualification tournament and by taking home the trophy for best engineering robot in the competition.
The team’s two qualifying robots made it to the state tournament, which sends 19 robots to the World Championships in Louisville, KY, in late April, via two different paths. Robot 1253C, designed and built by Alana Atkinson, Leana Atkinson, Samina Patel and Paulina Escobar, won the tournament in an alliance with robots from Marist High School and Walnut Grove High School. Robot 1253, designed and built by Diego Escobar, Netra Gandhi, and Nabil Patel, captured the Excellence Award for construction and engineering design, the tournament’s top award.
“This is not our first time qualifying for the state tournament,” said teacher and advisor Rodney Ragsdale, “but it is our first time qualifying more than one robot.”
Ragsdale said the students were much more aggressive this year in seeking unique solutions to building the best functional robot to master the challenges in this year’s situation.
“Every year the game changes and the requirements for the robot to score are much different based on the scenario,” Ragsdale said. “This year being able to unfurl your robots from an 18 inch cube into a robot that can lift itself 12 inches off the ground, while also being able to throw half pound of foam cubes over a 2 foot fence, made it a most unique challenge. These guys have done great at that.”
The entire squad also won the Lowndes Sportsmanship Award for its overall cooperative spirit and its help with the other twenty teams at the competition.
Nabil Patel, Ashni Patel, and Diego Escobar designed and built Robot 1253 and won the Excellence Award for Construction and Engineer Design.
Samina Patel, Paulina Escobar, Leana Atkinson, and Alana Atkinson designed and built Robot 1253C and won the tournament in alliance with robots from Marist High School and Walnut Grove High School.
– Submitted