The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) has just released the list of robotics teams in Texas that have qualified for the organization’s state robotics competitions to be held in April. As a second place finishing team at the Area One level competition, the Mission High School Eagle 4 team already knew it had qualified for the state competition. The members of the Eagle 4 team are: Ashley Bennett, Karen Blanco, Brandon Flores, Janeth Gonzalez. They compete in the advanced inventions contests.
The final list of state qualifiers is based upon an overall, statewide look at regional competition scores and results. This final list includes five additional district teams that will compete in the intermediate area competitions.
The Green Robo-Rangers from Alton Memorial Jr. High School (AMJH) consists of students Steve Hoyuela, David Salazar, Farith Elvira, and Joseu Silva.
The Gold Robo-Rangers from AMJH consists of students Maximo Briones, Enrique Cantu, Ivens Martinez, and Carlos Hernandez.
The Bravo Hawk team from K. White Jr. High School (KWJH) consists of students Francisco Garcia, Sebastian Carrillo, Anyssa Vidaurri, and Karina Cantu.
The Charlie Hawk team from KWJH consists of students Tyresse Lopez, Damian Cantu, and Alondra Martinez.
The team from R. Cantu Jr. High School advancing to state competitions consists of students Aaron Arredondo, Carlos Ponce, Bryan Reynaga, and Horacio Moronto.
Each team enters either an Arena Competition or the Inventions Competition. A lego-based platform is used by the teams to build their robots. In the Inventions Competition, teams create and develop a unique robotic invention that would solve a real-world problem. Team members have to approach the problem as a team of engineers, working to solve a common problem using the Engineering Design Process that consists of research, planning, development of a prototype, documenting, testing, and commercializing the invention.
The theme for this year’s Arena Competitions centered around Urban Search and Rescue (USAR). The challenge was to develop a low-cost robotics platform to aid USAR workers. Each team’s robot had to perform specific tasks in the challenge field; with each completed task accumulating points for the team.
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