UNION GROVE — Union Grove High School sent two robotics teams to its first VEX Robotics competition.
The Wisconn Valley VRC Tournament was held recently at Shoreland Lutheran High School. The two UGHS teams competed against 18 other teams from around the state in an all-day competition featuring individually designed robots, an engineering notebook and a presentation to STEM judges.
Each of the two teams consisted of seven engineering students. Team 90843A known as The Finches was operated by Kayla Knudtson, Sam Fleischman, Kai Lueth, Melissa Haigh, Nathan Beutel, Nick Miller, and Ronan Kosterman. Team 90843B known as the Short Circuits was operated by Luke Baird, Andrew Jakes, Kellen Busey, Luke Scott, Jack Sievert, Jeff Stemp and Mason Noble.
The Finches finished the qualifying rounds in fourth place while the Short Circuits suffered a tough loss on a technicality that dropped them down from eighth to 18th place. The Finches advanced to the quarter finals and won that round with great teamwork from their alliance partners. The partners fought a good match in the semifinals but came up short by losing to the eventual tournament champions.
The teams were supported by friends and family as well as other community sponsors and mentors. Local businesses such as Zoomlion, American Metal Craft, Coleman Tool, First Call Heating and Cooling, and BSW Electric contributed donations to cover startup costs for materials and tools. National sponsors from the Northrup Grumman Foundation and the REC Foundation provided donations of electronics equipment to the new teams.
Zoomlion Heavy Industries provided professional mechanical engineers to serve as team mentors. Bennet Hoffman, Zeeshan Syed and Sam Feldner visited the teams each week to give suggestions and check on their progress. The students also learned about careers and colleges from their mentors. The mentors were at the competition to cheer on the students in their rookie season.
The robotics students who competed will be eligible for selection into the International Robotics Honor Society. Union Grove High School is the first chapter in the state of Wisconsin. Broncos Robotics has also started a chapter of the Society of Women Engineers Club with plans for entering into more STEM competitions.
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