Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Garfield/Palouse Vikotics team gather together after preparing for next week's scrimmage at West Valley in Spokane.
Members of the Sciborgs team, Alec Klaveano and Kellan Yoshikawa, Pullman High School, test out their prototype on the intake system.
The high school robotics season nears its start again for 2020, with teams around the northwest – and the world – preparing for first competitions, to begin this weekend.
The Palouse Area Robotics Team, the Sciborgs, made up of kids from Colfax, Pullman, Moscow, Colton and Uniontown, will begin its ninth year Saturday with a scrimmage in the West Valley High School cafeteria in Spokane, going against West Valley, Coeur d'Alene and Kettle Falls.
Each team builds a robot to compete in the season's specific game.
"Our design team has some innovative designs that we haven't seen before," said Sciborgs volunteer Helena Johnson.
This year the theme is "Infinite Re-charge," a contest which depicts asteroids approaching a city and the citizens need to be protected. This requires robots to align with each other to collect power cells, shoot them into goals "to energize their shield generator for maximum protection" and hang on a hanger swinging back and forth, ultimately, to operate the shield.
The Sciborgs have 35 kids on the roster, including many new freshmen.
Seniors this year are Alec Klaveano, Will Cole, Ben Holland, Marshall Hill, Nick Call and Hayden Cole, all from Pullman.
The team's first official competition will be March 6-7, back at West Valley, among 26 teams.
VIKOTICS
The Garfield/Palouse Vikotics team will be in West Valley next weekend also. Both local teams will then go to Yakima March 21-22, to compete against 34 teams.
The Sciborgs have met 6-7 days per week the past month at their workspace at Lincoln Middle School, building their robot.
The Vikotics, in their fifth year, have 12 kids on the team.
"We're real excited. I'm very hopeful, not to jinx us," said Mark Sawyer, lead mentor and Garfield/Palouse High School ag teacher. "It's by far the best-designed, best-looking robot we've ever built. We're setting our sites on Houston."
Houston is one of the world championships sites.
The Vikotics' robot features bamboo plywood, leftover from a project at Schweitzer Engineering.
The group began in the first week of January, working 10 hours per week in the Gar/Pal ag shop. They took in a scrimmage in Auburn Feb. 21-22.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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