News
High Peak Youth Robotics success at regional competition
On 25 March, our High Peak Youth Robotics youth group travelled to Sheffield to take part in the FIRST Tech Challenge regional competition, officially the Yorkshire & Humber Qualifying Tournament. Below is a report of the day from the group. If you’re not familiar with the FIRST Tech Challenge, see our earlier blog post here.
Spoiler alert – they got through to the national finals in London in June! To get them there, we need to raise some pennies. We’re very grateful for a financial contribution from Buxton Rotary and some private contributions – if you would like to sponsor the group, please donate via our GoFundMe account – https://www.gofundme.com/f/high-peak-youth-robotics-compete-in-the-first-tech-challenge.
Report on Regionals by High Peak Youth Robotics
The FIRST Tech Challenge Regional competition at Sheffield Hallam University was an amazing experience. We were able to put our robot, use of the field and problem-solving tactics into practice. Alliances with other teams gave us the opportunity to communicate and cooperate with others as well as get to know our competition for future events. We were able to identify the strengths in our engineering designs and tactics for approaching the challenges and some areas for improvement so that we can reach our full potential as a team.
In total, 11 out of the 15 members in our team made it to the event, a good turn-out considering we are an outside of school group who spend one evening a week on this project. We were the only team, out of the 15 that played at that event, that weren’t a school group, but take part through a community project.
Upon arriving at the event, we had to go through several examinations to make sure we met all the proper requirements. First was the robot inspection: our robot was measured and checked electrically to make sure it wasn’t too big or potentially dangerous to us or other competitors. Next was the field inspection, where we were watched driving our robot to ensure we weren’t doing anything against the rules. Our robot design made sure we passed all these checks. We then went, as a team, to present our engineering portfolio in front of a panel of judges and answer their questions.
During the competition, we played in two main rounds: the first was the qualifiers, during which we were randomly assigned team alliances, to plan on the spot and compete with the opposite alliance for the most points. There were 19 rounds in total. Each team played in 5 rounds with a different random partner each round.
Despite needing a few repairs along the way, and the uncertainly of our alliance partners, we did outstandingly in this round and managed to come first!
Watch a video of our first match >>
The next round was the knock-outs. Since we came first, we got first choice on alliances this round. Unfortunately, our chosen partner had several malfunctions during the rounds, meaning we didn’t win; but second place is still an incredible achievement for a first-year team.
At the end of the day, there was an award ceremony. We are ecstatic to have won not one, but two, awards, as well as qualifying for the national championships in London! The first award was for coming second in the knockout round: FINALIST ALLIANCE Award! The second was the THINK Award, for “removing engineering obstacles through creative thinking”. It was our engineering portfolio, of which we are very proud, that was the key in the judges awarding us this.
Our team captain, Nat Lawson, 17, said,
“I am very pleased with the results of the regionals and I am thankful for all the effort that my whole team has put in. I am confident that my team will perform to a high standard in the nationals.”
Our Team Lead, Dave Lydford of Brick Corner (the LEGO cafe) and FIRST LEGO League veteran, added,
“It has been a pleasure to be involved in this project and to experience coaching a team in a new challenge. Working with a different robotics kit has allowed us to develop more complex and resilient engineered solutions and the group have learned so much in terms of engineering, coding and teamwork. We attended the regional event never expecting to compete at the level of some really experienced teams. It was also great to demonstrate how a community group could participate successfully at this level. We are looking forward to attending the national final and both the challenge and opportunities this will bring.”
Moving Forward
The national championships will be held in London at the Copper Box Arena on 26 and 27 June. We need to raise some money so that we can hold some workshops to improve the robot and practice ahead of the event. If you would like to sponsor us, please donate via our GoFundMe account – https://www.gofundme.com/f/high-peak-youth-robotics-compete-in-the-first-tech-challenge.
Find out more about the group and see photos from our workshops on the project page here.
