Local robotics team turns in strong showing
RIVIERA BEACH — Palm Beach County has a world-class robotics team in its own backyard, and it just delivered a strong showing at the 407team FIRST World Robotics Championships in Houston.
A robotics team based in Riviera Beach and composed of students from several schools was ranked as the No. 1 team in Florida going into the world championships after winning a South Florida regional event. They go by the name Children of the Swamp.
The team, powered by the performance of their robot “SwampThing,” reached the division finals before being eliminated, making them one of the final 12 teams in the competition.
The premise of the competition is this: a video, released by FIRST, outlines tasks a team’s robot will be expected to complete at the championships. From there, teams have six weeks to build their robot.
“To see the robot get built, piece by piece, and then fully assembled, and to see the full size of it and know what it can actually do because you’ve helped to build it, I think that’s one of the coolest parts of doing this,” said Daniel Camp, a sophomore at Suncoast High School.
At the world championships, Children of the Swamp competed in two days of round-robin competition before moving on to the alliance stage, where the teams partnered into trios during the division finals. The Children of the Swamp’s trio included a team from Istanbul, Turkey, as well as Stallion Robotics out of Delray Beach. Their trio ultimately lost to an alliance of teams from California.
Though some of the “Swampers” were disappointed they didn’t win, their mentors couldn’t have been more proud.
“We were in a division with 67 teams, and 65 of them didn’t get where we were,” said Chet Zientek, an 18-year mentor. “I’m proud of the team, and I’m proud of the kids because they put a lot of time and work in.”
The alliance aspect at the FIRST also fosters a spirit of cooperation and respect.
“In the FIRST community, gracious professionalism is a big deal,” said team organizer Lisa Smith. “When we go into the competition, we don’t go in to beat everybody and it’s not a cutthroat competition. We’re there to help all of the teams succeed.”
For many students, what they gain from the FIRST program goes beyond the competition aspect of the championships.
“It’s such a well-rounded program, from engineering to science and math, to developing your communication and leadership skills, there’s not really one aspect that FIRST doesn’t cater to,” said Savannah Scrocco, a sophomore at Jupiter High School, who hopes to attend Georgia Tech.
“I’ve been in this program for four years, and along with all the mechanical skills I’ve learned, I’m the president, so I learned management, how to run a team and how to get everyone to cooperate together,” said team president Michael Qualls, a senior at Suncoast High School. Qualls hopes to join the robotics team next year at UCF.
In addition to the lessons the program teaches, FIRST provides students opportunities to advance their academic careers.
“FIRST has over $5 million in scholarships and many of those scholarships are specifically for girls in engineering,” said Kara Wilson, a sophomore at Suncoast High School. “This is not only a huge help in experience, but also in helping us get to college.”