Information courtesy of Stephanie Nardone, Algonquin Regional High School
The Algonquin Robotics FIRST Team 1100 returned from the WPI FIRST Regional competition last weekend, when the team won FIRST’s most prestigious award—the Chairman’s Award.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. Algonquin’s FIRST Team 1100 has been participating in robotics competitions since 2003. Teams of three robots compete against each other in games on fields the size of a basketball court. The games vary each year. This year the game is called Ultimate Ascent and the robots are required to shoot
flying discs through goals and to climb a pyramid to score additional points.
At the WPI Regional, Team 1100, led by Dan Strickland and advised by George Clarke, ranked third after two days of qualifying rounds and made it to the semifinals in the elimination round. The team also won the Innovation and Control Award for its unique methods of programming the autonomous mode for the robot, and won FIRST’s highest award, the Chairman’s Award.
Per FIRST: "The Chairman’s Award was created to keep the central focus of FRC on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become scientists, engineers and technologists.
The Chairman’s Award represents the spirit of FIRST. It honors the team that, in the judges estimation, best represents a model for other teams to emulate, and which embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST. It remains FIRST’s most prestigious award."
To win Chairman’s, Team 1100 worked during the year to inspire younger students to become interested in science and technology by holding demonstrations at the library and for various scout groups, by participating in Northborough’s Applefest and providing visitors with hands-on experiences driving robots, by mentoring two FIRST Lego League teams and hosting an FLL
competition, and by holding a Build Your Own Robot event for students in grades 3 through 6.
For the competition, the team wrote a 1,000-character essay describing its work, prepared a three minute video showing what they’ve done throughout the year, and gave a presentation to the judges at the competition. The Chairman’s Award honor qualifies the team for the Championship competition to be held in St. Louis, MO, from April 24-28.