The Northwood Robotics Team has qualified for its first-ever national championship. The Huskies are headed to Houston during spring break for the 2022 FIRST Championship.
Some of the member of the Northwood Robotics Team (6300), including (l to r) Mr. Jeff Martin, Kirk NguyenLe ’23, Mitchell Tuttle ’24, and David Garvey ’22 (Photo: .
The Robotics team qualified for the national championship by winning the “The Engineering Inspiration Award” at a regional competition earlier this season. This award recognizes a team’s engineering and design skills for their robot; it also recognizes how well they work together and work with other teams. The Northwood Robotics Team showed great perseverance and resilience which inspired many Northwood students and staff.
The 2022 FIRST Championship is April 20 – 23 in Houston, Texas. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a robotics community that inspires young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
“The Northwood students on Team 6300 always work to help other teams,” Mr. Jeff Martin, the mentor for the robotics team, said. “At this event they specifically gave a great deal of help (programming, parts, strategy, etc.) to the Lake Placid High School team,” Martin added.
Martin believes the Huskies deserved the engineering award. “The judges at the event were impressed by how well kids knew and understood their robot design and how well they communicated their ideas to the judges,” Martin said.
Earning a trip to nationals is a huge honor. “Winning this award qualified the team for the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championship in Houston in April,” Martin said. “Only 3 awards at any competition will earn you a trip to World Champs. They also earned a $5,000 NASA sponsorship,” Martin boasted.
“It was a fantastic tournament,” robotics team member David Garvey ‘22 said of the event that qualified the Huskies for nationals. “It was only our second tournament this year. It could have been better though. We got unlucky with some of our assigned alliances. However, we still succeeded.”
Garvey has high hopes for the Huskies in Houston. “We are excited to compete against the top 600 teams in the world,” Garvey said. “We are aiming to place really high in that tournament and potentially win it.”
Students interested in getting involved in robotics should reach out to Mr. Martin or Ms. Carmichael.
This Robotics Team has inspired many students and faculty around campus. Northwood wishes the Robotics Team good luck in Houston and hope they come home with a trophy.
