Since receiving the parts and directions for their robot in early January the Robotics Team, under the supervision of Mr. Olsen and Mr. Wahi from Como along with Mr. Young and Mr. Nelson who represented General Dynamics, have been spending the past months hard at work. They have been building their robot, programming it, testing it, and rebuilding it. With a grant of $9000 dollars from General Motors the team was able to afford the necessary supplies, and under the direction of Mr. Wahi and Mr. Olsen the team has been preparing their robot for the competition.

The team was formed last year, so they do not have quite as much experience as many of the other teams that would be competing at the Regional Competition. Despite their apparent inexperience, the Como Park Robotics Team had an impressive record for its short existence. At last years Regional Competition, the team’s first competition, they placed 9^th.

The competition that the Team had prepared for was held over Spring Break. FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition Ten-thousand Lakes 2010 Regional competition was held from Thursday April 1^st-Saturday April 2^nd in the Williams Arena of the University of Minnesota. The competition was a three day event. The first day consisted of practice rounds, it was a chance for the teams to work out any problems with their robots and try them out in the “field”. The second day and with the start of the third were the Qualifying Rounds. This is where three teams were randomly grouped together, and competed against other teams of three robots. The point of the game was for the robots to get a soccer ball into the opposing team’s goal.

The Como Park Robotics Team had built a defensive robot to play a kind of “goalie”. The competition was filled with problems that the team faced. “The other team’s offensive robots” that the Como Team was paired up with “were not very good” said Student Captain C. Dale, “and we faced some technical difficulties”. The “technical difficulties” were some serious malfunctions that occurred. During the last two games of the Qualifying Rounds the Como Robot’s chain detached itself from the wheels. In the end the Como team was unable to make it past the Qualifying Rounds, and we finished placing 62^nd out of 63 teams.

This loss did not dishearten the Robotics team, since they still had a very good past few months. In the time it took to build the robot the members of the team bonded and were able to make friends with one another. They still look forward to, and remain hopeful, for next year. “They’ll need more people next year,” says Student Captain C. Dale, who will be graduating this year, “that was the biggest difference between our team and all the others”

More leaves or stars?
I don’t know.
I know they aren’t
all in a row.

Sometimes I think
there are more students.
So help me, I wish
them all, dear prudence.