Robotics team off to St. Louis

BONNERS FERRY — In recognition of their outstanding performance, the Bonners Ferry Robotics FIRST Team 2130, Alpha +, was given the Engineering Inspiration Award at the Spokane Regional competition April 5- 6.

The competition was held at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash.

The Engineering Inspiration Award not only celebrates a team’s outstanding success but also the appreciation for engineering within the team’s school and community.

This is the second time the team has received the Engineering Inspiration Award. The first time was at the Portland competition last year.

“This is very positive recognition for Bonners Ferry,” said Supt. Richard Conley.

In a field of 42 robots, the Bonners Ferry team finished first in the qualifiers, including two high scores for all matches.

“The fact that we were number one in the playoffs is pretty amazing,” said Ed Katz, Robotics Team mentor. “The students had to be on their toes and work hard.”

Team 2130 made it to the semi-finals in Cheney. The goal of each match is to have the robot launch as many Frisbees into a basket as it can in 135 seconds.

“An unbelievable performance,” said Katz. “A world-class robot.”

As part of the Engineering Inspiration Award, the team won free entry into the World Championships in St. Louis, M., April 24-27 (a $5,000 entry fee). The team has attended the World Championships twice before and won it three years ago.

Four hundred teams from around the world will be competing in the Edward Jones Dome on four fields, including teams from Mexico, Canada, Australia and Israel.

“The whole point of the competition is to see what teams can do,” said Katz. “It’s a phenomenal opportunity.”

“A world competition, it is amazing,” said Kirk Hoff, BFHS principal.

With two Engineering Inspiration Awards and a third trip to the World Championships, the Bonners Ferry Team is getting noticed and extending a good representation of the community.

The team was featured on KXLY and KREM news during the competition and several dignitaries stopped by their booth to visit.

“People are quite amazed at what the students could pull off,” said Katz.

The team competes against students attending engineering-based high schools and teams with as many as 16 engineer mentors, some including Boeing engineers.

The award they received goes beyond where the team placed, but also recognizes the organizational and community input that make the robot and program successful.

“It is about what we do for the community,” said Kristen Gannon, team member. “We do outreach and combined with business skills it got us our award.”

The program’s success is reliant on numerous mentors who work with the students as much as 25 hours per week. Mentors include Carrick Remaley, Joe Reed, Cheryl and John Kaessinger, Albert Solt, Jill and Ed Katz, Pat Rogers and Jerry Llkenhons.

“It is what we do best as a community. We work hard,” said Katz.

The students have been working with their mentors since September toward World Championships.

The team was one Frisbee throw away from winning the championship round in Portland, Ore., on March 7-9, said Katz.

Also in Portland, Katz won the mentorship award out of all the mentors on the 60 competing teams. Katz is in the running for the world mentoring award at St. Louis.

“It was quite an honor in Portland,” said Katz. “Really truly an honor.”

Team 2130 is ranked fourth out of 179 teams in the Northwest and ranked 40 out of 2,400 teams nationally.

“It is absolutely remarkable what you (Katz) and the students have done,” said Conley. “It is next to brilliant.”