Robotics Team Holds Open House

The WPS robotics team led an open house for all students in forms I-III on September 16. Students were treated to a demonstration by the robot built by the team for last year’s competition, in addition to an exciting video of the Florida Regional Competition, in which our robotics team finished fourth.

In that competition, WPS competed against high school teams. This year, WPS expects to use its experience and an expanded team roster to reach greater heights.

The open house also featured presentations by team members and Arnaldo Santiago, one of the lead engineers on our team. Mr. Santiago works with Lockheed Martin. LM has contributed greatly to the success of the WPS robotics program. Many students were inspired by the open house and said they were eager to join the team – approximately fifteen students signed up.

The robotics competition is sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). On its Web site, www.usfirst.org, FIRST describes the program as “an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. In 2005 the competition reached close to 25,000 high-school-aged young people on close to 1,000 teams in 30 competitions. Teams came from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines.