McEachern Robotics Team Builds a Sixth-Place Finish

Article courtesy Paul Eubanks

The Techno Tribe has set a new standard for robotics at McEachern High School. The robot “bot-bot” exceeded the design achievements for this year, including the quality of the robot scoring, programming and student involvement.

They finished in sixth out of 60 teams on the first day of competing. The team doesn't focus on place numbers because the numbers could never measure the improvements and hard work put into robot no. 3265. The team agrees that this year's robot design achieved all the goals set by FIRST Robotics.

Waking up at 5:30 to 6 a.m. to catch a bus for a 60-minute drive to the Gwinnett Center was very entertaining for the team as they passed the long drive with song-singing and debates over music. The days of being at the Center did not end until around 6 p.m. with the building bustling with loud noises of announcements, cheering fans and teammates, and the fixing of robots.

The crowd was a great supporter of each team. Not only team members competing, but family and friends were there to cheer for each match and even entertained themselves and others by dancing to various songs played in the speakers, catching the attention of the cameras as they passed onto the crowd.

The female members of each robotics team were cordially invited to attend the Women in Technology (WIT) luncheon and were provided with lemonade, pizza, goodie bags and a mentor working in fields of technology. The mentors were happy to share their own personal experience working in their field and how they got there while helping the teams map out their future to their desired careers.

Overall, the team scored a total of 134 in all areas of the competition. After passing inspection, the robot scored the majority of the points for its alliances.

A special thanks to our mentors from McEachern, Lockheed and GE as they gave advice and hands-on assistance with fixing consistent problems with the loader and programming. Special thanks also go to Emeke Nkadi and Trevon Taylor for taking time out of their work to help South Cobb and team no. 4150 with their technical difficulties and representing McEachern with gracious professionalism!

The teams participated in friendly competition building alliances with certain teams and they kept the mood light and welcoming with each team coming for the same purpose and enjoying each other’s company while exchanging advice and meeting new people. Team no. 3265 will continue to grow and set higher goals for next year’s regionals event. The Techno Tribe is extremely proud of the robot that they put so much time and energy into.

The Techno Tribe and its mentors enjoyed three days of sandwiches, drinks and chips fully paid for by General Electric, who showed their support for the team not only in hands-on assistance, but also by showing team spirit. Hopefully, we will continue to enjoy their partnership in the years to come.