Robotics teams advance to state

Fusion X, which consists of eight elementary and middle school students — Gabe Stein, Nathan Ganders, Leo Polehn, Shane Squires, Trenton Schacher, Frances Fuller, Jacob Ganders and Jordan Scherer — as well as high school mentors Stephen Ganders and Rey Aviluz, also won first place for robot design.

“It’s a huge honor to be one of five teams,” Seapy said. “The group is fantastic, works well together and is excellent at solving problems. The students looked for a model that could meet the needs of the challenge.”

Instead of two large and one small motor, which is standard, Fusion X’s robot had three large motors. It was also light so the robot could accomplish as many missions in the given two and half minutes as possible.

System Overload had to compete a man down as Saul Hernandez was out sick, but fifth grader Ian Castaneda and sixth graders Ethan Page, Angel Garcia and Keegan Kuku made sure Hernandez would have another opportunity to participate at state.

Acosta noted everyone on System Overload has at least two or three years of experience in robotics. Acosta coached in Hood River in 2006 when the FIRST Lego League came to Oregon.

This will be his fourth time qualifying for the state tournament.

Saturday, each team had three attempts to score the most points with their robot and took only the highest score.

The robot challenge was based on the theme “Trash Trek” so to complete a mission teams had to program their robot to accomplish tasks — using Lego pieces — like recycling, disposing of trash or salvaging a vehicle by installing a windshield so it could be reused.

“My main goal is that they have fun learning math and science,” Seapy said. “That’s the fun of it, to see what the kids come up with to solve problems.”

Programming the robot was just one part of the tournament. Teams were also judged on their core values and a research project.

Fusion X, whose name — 10 people working together — itself shows core values, titled its project “How to get rid of old junk cars.” The team came up with three solutions — donate the vehicle to a non-profit, give it to a junk yard for scrap metal or find a place to fix the car.

Tri-County Hazardous Waste and Recycling Program Coordinator David Skakel was so impressed with the project that he asked if he could hand out the flyer, which provided phone numbers and email addresses of different non-profits, junk yards and mechanics.

System Overload researched how to get rid of plastic in water.

The local robotics program is funded by the Gorge Technology Alliance, which purchases kits and loans them to schools. Google, Boeing and Insitu sponsored the qualifying tournament at TDMS. Two more tournaments will take place this Saturday and Sunday at Wy’east Middle School in Hood River.

The Oregon Robotics Tournament and Outreach Program (ORTOP) holds 24 qualifying tournaments throughout the state.

The state tournament is Jan 9-10 at Liberty High School.

“It’s a very fun event,” Seapy said. “We’ll leave the middle school by 5 a.m. and go all day. The competition there is extremely challenging because it’s everyone from the state. The projects are just amazing, some have designed their own videos. It’s a good chance to meet other teams. We just try to do the best we can.”