Robotics team gears up for the season

COLFAX - The 4-H Palouse Area Robotics Team (SciBorgs) started their season for the year on Saturday, Jan. 4.

The team is made of high school-aged students from Colfax, Pullman and Moscow who met on Saturday, Jan. 4 and Sunday, Jan 5 for the first time this year.

The group will have eight weeks to make prototypes, design, build, wire and program a 115 pound competitive robot.

"As a junior in high school, I've learned so much from being on this robotics team for three years," Colfax High School student Andrew Kranick said.

Kranick is part of three subteams including the CAD, Mechanical and drive team and said he gets the opportunity to building robot pieces from scratch in the shop with their 3-D printer and learning to speak to judges about robot design, operation and community outreach.

"It's been a great time." Kranick said. "If I make the cut this year to be on the drive team again, I will be proud to represent Whitman County at our events this Spring."

The team will join over 3,700 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams worldwide competing in the FRC robotics program.

This season's game will be REEFSCAPE, an ocean-themed game presented by the Gene Haas Foundation will have two competing alliances score coral (PVC tubes) and harvest algae (rubber balls) to attach to the barge before time runs out.

The winning team will earn the most points.

"I'm happy to be able to 'Dive In' to this creative game," Pullman High School Junior Nick Lee said.

Lee is on subteams CAD, software and scouting and said FIRST offers amazing opportunities.

"This year we submitted the team's first animated short film for the Safety Animation Award," Lee said. "I then developed a workshop to teach other students how to use animation software."

"We are approaching this year's game, having learned a lot from our challenges last season," Moscow High School student Ruby Claire Johnson Leung said. "We are working with our team's abilities in mind so we can have a reliable robot, instead of struggling with an overly ambitious design."

Johnson-Leung is on subteams CAD, mechanical, business and the drive team.

The team is traveling to Salem for the Oregon State Fairgrounds Competition Friday, Feb. 28 through Saturday, March 1, to compete against dozens of Pacific Northwest District teams.

The SciBorgs will then go on to compete on Friday, March 14, and Saturday, March 15, at the Sundome in Yakima.

If the team collects enough PNW District rankings at the two events, they will move onto the PNW Championship in Cheney in April.