ROBOTICS TEAM TO PLAY WORLD’S BEST
4 years after inception, Rockefeller club ready for world championship
Just four years ago, Mt. Pleasant High School didn’t have a robotics team.
Yet this week, MPHS’ robotics students will harness all their skills in science, technology, engineering and math in the FIRST Robotics world championship in Houston, going head-to-head — and gear to gear — against the best teams across the United States and 40 other countries.
Starting Thursday, the MPHS Rockefeller Robotics will compete against the world’s top teams after winning regionals, then beating more seasoned teams across Michigan to reach the semifinals of the statewide competition in Saginaw in early April.
“We’ve had just 10 days to get ready for the world championship, but this team of students has shown creativity, determination and teamwork all season long and they’re ready for the challenge,” MPHS physics teacher and robotics advisor Ken Schafer said.
Or as junior Lukas Dimaria said about facing the team’s toughest competition yet: “It’s a field like any other that we’ve played on. The goal doesn’t change. Go, play our best, learn, get better.” At the world championship, the 19-member MPHS team will go up against around 500 teams representing the best of the best from Australia, Brazil, China, Israel, Mexico, Turkey, India, Britain and others, in addition to the United States.
The Rockefeller Robotics has come a long way from its start during the 2021-2022 school year, when a small but determined group of students convinced Schafer to lead a robotics team. A few students joined because their friends invited them. Others joined for a sense of belonging. Schafer said the team prin