WINDERMERE PREP ROBOTICS TEAM AIMS HIGH, WINS BIG
Local Team Takes First at Florida Regionals and Heads to National Championship

WPS Robotics Team members (from left), Kevin Loiselle (driver), Nik Kuebler
(roller operator), and Greg Wiles (playing coach) are intense in their involvement behind the scenes as they control the Lakerbotix Robot (1649 in the foreground)

In only its second year of participation in what is arguably the largest high school robotics competition in the country, Windermere Preparatory School, in an alliance with two other Florida teams, prevailed over 48 other teams to win the Florida Regional Championship of the 2006 FIRST* Robotics Competition. Team 1649, Lakerbotix, advances to the national championships, to be held from April 27-29, 2006, in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

“We are thrilled and proud to share this victory with our Lakerbotix students, parents, mentors, and sponsors,” said Donna Montague-Russell, headmaster of Windermere Preparatory School. “Our students worked seven days a week for six weeks to design, build and perfect a robot that could climb ramps, score goals and play defense. The payoff is not simply a game well played; it is the fact that these young people have learned how to form a team, take responsibility for their actions, and pursue a common goal through cooperation, compromise and respect.”

In addition to being so new to this competition, Lakerbotix was the youngest team, and one of the smallest in number, to participate in the Florida Regionals. The 16 students range in age from 12 to just 16 years old, with only three members in high school. The team captain celebrated his 13th birthday just three days before the competition.

Founded by the celebrated inventor Dean Kaman, the FIRST Competition is an exhilarating, multinational contest that teams science and engineering professionals with students to solve a specific engineering design problem in just six weeks. The 33 regional competitions, attended this year by more than 1,100 teams, are high-tech spectator sporting events that pit two three-team robot alliances against one another in heated match play. Team 1649 won 12 of 17 matches to share first place with their alliance partners.

Team 1649 was sponsored and mentored by Saab Training (Arnaldo Santiago, Rich Cannon and Omar Silva), Lockheed-Martin (Ed Grant, Tim Martino and
Adam Bojanowski) and Walt Disney World (Doug Dixon). Other sponsors include Mears Transportation/Hello Florida!, Pepsi and Florida Metalcrafters. To learn more about FIRST and the FIRST Robotics Competition, go to www.usfirst.org.

* For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology