Ferradermis hosted 24 FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics teams, including the Whitewater Middle School Iron Dragons, for a competition at Whitewater High School on Sunday, December 7. Approximately 250 middle and high school students competed throughout the day, meeting with judges and putting their robots to the test on the field.
Team 8680 Kraken-Pinion from Homestead High School placed 1st overall, winning both the Inspire Award and the overall robot competition. The WMS Iron Dragons, coached by Kerry Ramsden, ranked 14th in robot qualification matches and 18th overall when award points were included.
This year’s FTC game shares the same archeology based theme as FIRST Lego League and the high school FIRST Robotics Competition. In the FTC game, robots need to collect artifacts (green and purple wiffle balls) and load them into the classifier in a particular pattern in order to achieve maximum points. The pattern required is randomized at the beginning of each match, and robots can use vision to decode the motif and determine the pattern required. FTC robots must fit in an 18” cube and play on a 12’ square field. During the first 30 seconds of each match, the robots are programmed to operate autonomously, and for the remaining 2 minutes, the robots are under the control of a student drive team.
FTC teams play in 2 or 3 qualifying competitions each season, and the WMS Iron Dragons will compete again on February 8 at the Skirmish of Brookfield.
All FIRST Robotics events are run by volunteers, and it takes about 90 volunteers to host events such as the Whitewater FLL Challenge Regional and Whitewater FTC Qualifier held at Whitewater High School this fall. There are both technical and non-technical volunteer roles available. If you are interested in volunteering at a future robotics event or working with the district teams as a volunteer, please reach out to Laura Masbruch at lmasbruch@wwusd.org.