by Divya Kumar
News Editor
The Coppell FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) team has entered their first year of competition, leaving on Thurs., March 25 for Oklahoma. A group of 14 students, two from NTH@C and the rest a part of CHS, have been working diligently for the last six weeks up till this event.
The FIRST competition requires students to build a robot in response to a “problem” they are presented with sometime in Jan. For the next six weeks, these students are instructed to program this robot to complete a series of tasks. Once this time is complete, the robot is sealed up, and students are no longer allowed to work on it.
Since this competition was not organized through an official Coppell engineering class, the 14 members had to meet up afterschool on roughly around six days a week to work. A total of 100-120 team hours were put in by members over the span of time.
“Everyone’s been really devoted,” co-sponsor and CHS engineering teacher Grant Garner said. “These kids have put in so much time and effort for this, along with their schoolwork.”
The Coppell FIRST team, called the “Mad Cows”, built a robot that was to maneuver around a soccer field and kick in goals, while avoiding obstacles. At the competition, where the robot will fulfill this action, the Coppell team will be paired up with two other unknown schools to play against an opposing team. Combinations of schools will vary with each round, so it is likely that Coppell will play alongside as well as against almost every school competing. If the Mad Cows succeed in several rounds at this regional level, they will advance to the international round of competitions.
Though there is no official prize for winner the competition other than esteem, there are several benefits to competing. Scholarships between $14,000 to $16,000 are rewarded on average to one of every three students that excel in this competition.
“The main purpose of this event is to get kids involved,” Garner said. “To get them to learn more about engineering and technology.”
The event will be broadcasted live here. The games will run from around 9 AM to 5 PM from Friday – Sunday. To learn more about the competition as a whole, contact either Garner or Yakubovsky, or visit the official contest website here.
