(May 12, 2016) The Titanium Wrecks robotics team recently retuned from a global competition in St. Louis with an award for pit safety, along with renewed inspiration to further develop their engineering skills.
This was the third year the T-Wrecks team has competed in the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Championship, which was held April 27-30, and drew more than 20,000 students from 42 countries.
Paul Suplee, team mentor, said T-Wrecks competed in the Galileo Division and at the onset performed admirably.
“The first match was a strong win, and the students were confident that they would do well, but then the next few matches had a number of problems,” he said.
In addition to mechanical issues with “SHWrecks,” the team’s robot, Suplee said there were also problems with robots belonging to teams in a randomly picked alliance.
“The best part of this was that the students were able to troubleshoot and repair every issue in the last three matches,” he said.
Despite the high level of competition, Suplee said T-Wrecks managed a tie and even pulled out a hard-fought victory.
“For our last qualification match, we were allied with the two- and three-seed teams in the division,” he said. “Our drive team and SHWreck scored 50 of the 110 points in that match, so we finished strong.”
At that point, Suplee said although T-Wrecks was eliminated from the bracketed competition, the students continued to learn.
“We were able to sit back and watch the finals, which were inspiring,” he said.
Despite falling out of the competition, in the end the team was awarded first place recognition for pit safety. With all team members returned home from the midwest journey, Suplee said the next chapter in robotics work from the Snow Hill-based team, comprised of high school students from across Worcester County, is set to launch.
“We’re gearing up for the offseason which will include Raspberry Pi training, Arduino projects, more submersible projects, and a great deal of fundraising,” he said.
To facilitate the St. Louis trip, the team established a GoFundMe page and received financial backing from numerous area businesses and residents.
“We can’t thank the community enough for stepping up to help us,” he said.
In addition to support from Macky’s, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Seacrets Irie Radio, Purdue and DeNovo’s, Suplee also praised area residents for helping to get the team to the global competition for the third consecutive year.
This was the third year the T-Wrecks team has competed in the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Championship, which was held April 27-30, and drew more than 20,000 students from 42 countries.
Paul Suplee, team mentor, said T-Wrecks competed in the Galileo Division and at the onset performed admirably.
“The first match was a strong win, and the students were confident that they would do well, but then the next few matches had a number of problems,” he said.
In addition to mechanical issues with “SHWrecks,” the team’s robot, Suplee said there were also problems with robots belonging to teams in a randomly picked alliance.
“The best part of this was that the students were able to troubleshoot and repair every issue in the last three matches,” he said.
Despite the high level of competition, Suplee said T-Wrecks managed a tie and even pulled out a hard-fought victory.
“For our last qualification match, we were allied with the two- and three-seed teams in the division,” he said. “Our drive team and SHWreck scored 50 of the 110 points in that match, so we finished strong.”
At that point, Suplee said although T-Wrecks was eliminated from the bracketed competition, the students continued to learn.
“We were able to sit back and watch the finals, which were inspiring,” he said.
Despite falling out of the competition, in the end the team was awarded first place recognition for pit safety. With all team members returned home from the midwest journey, Suplee said the next chapter in robotics work from the Snow Hill-based team, comprised of high school students from across Worcester County, is set to launch.
“We’re gearing up for the offseason which will include Raspberry Pi training, Arduino projects, more submersible projects, and a great deal of fundraising,” he said.
To facilitate the St. Louis trip, the team established a GoFundMe page and received financial backing from numerous area businesses and residents.
“We can’t thank the community enough for stepping up to help us,” he said.
In addition to support from Macky’s, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Seacrets Irie Radio, Purdue and DeNovo’s, Suplee also praised area residents for helping to get the team to the global competition for the third consecutive year.