Students Attend International Robotics Championship

This past Saturday, April 26, the MechaPirates, Team 5136 from Santa Ynez High School, made it into the final match of the FIRST Robotics World Championships, the first rookie team ever to make it that far. The MechaPirates team was only formed this past October and went to the championship in St. Louis after winning rookie honors in Madera’s regional competition last March.

Also at FIRST was Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy (DPEA), which sent 30 students, Team 1717, to the competition along with teachers and volunteer mentors, and attended the championship after winning a regional competition in Long Beach this past March and placing second at another in Las Vegas. The team reached the quarterfinals of the competition and won the General Motors Industrial Design Award for its robot, which had to throw balls over a truss, catch them, and put as many balls in goals as possible. The D’Penguineers invite the public to an open house on May 17 to meet their award-winning robot, “Penguinbot 9” from 3-5 p.m. at DPEA.