BFHS robotics team enjoys remarkable trip

BONNERS FERRY — The Bonners Ferry High School Robotics Team, Alpha +, participated in the 2010 FIRST Robotics World Championship held in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga. 

This was a remarkable experience in a year already filled with memorable events, according to Ed Katz, head coach of the team. 

The robotics team stayed at the seventy-story Westin Peachtree Hotel just a quarter mile from the Georgia Dome. 

Each morning at seven, the Bonners Ferry team joined 15,000 other participants on a walk to the Georgia Dome. 

With 340 teams in the competition, the event was randomly divided into four divisions of 85 teams each.  

Alpha + played in the Galileo Division, along with teams from all over of the United States.  They played with and against teams from Canada, Mexico, Australia and Israel. 

“Our “pit” (the area where we repaired our robot between games) was next to an Australian team, two Mexican teams, and another Idaho team, Team Taters,” said Katz.  “We made special bonds with these groups.”

Throughout the three day event, celebrities from industry and education addressed participants, emphasizing the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math education.  

Arne Duncan, the United States Secretary of Education, Charles F. Bolden, Administrator of NASA, and Bill Gates of Microsoft, were among the most memorable.

 There were rows and rows of booths from major universities recruiting future students.The CIA had a booth there as well. 

Texas Instruments, Autodesk and many other major engineering and manufacturing firms demonstrated their software and hardware and gave out nice prizes. One of the Bonners Ferry students won a full version of Solid Works. 

Two former BFHS graduates, Kaitlyn Tymrak and Jacob Katz, now engineers, flew in and spent time helping the team as well. The whole adventure ended in Centennial Olympic Park, with a private party for all FIRST Robotics participants, complete with a world class fireworks show.

“The question I am asked most often is- how did our team do?

 “From a purely numbers prospective, we made it to the quarter finals making us one of the top teams at the competition,” said Katz. 

“More importantly, our students met many complex and sophisticated technological challenges.” 

According to Katz some of those challenges were did the pit crew assemble and ship the proper tools and spare parts? Did they fix damaged parts in time for the next match? 

Did the drive team stay cool while thousands cheered? Could students concentrate for 12 a day on many complex tasks? Could students get teams to notice our performance during the preliminary matches? Could they do all this with gracious professionalism? 

To all of these questions Katz said he can answer absolutely.

“We should all be extremely proud of their performance and how well they represented our community,” he said. 

To see video coverage of this spectacular event, go to www.usfirst.org and click on Championship videos.