Monthly Archives: April 2017

The Immokalee High School robotics team participated in the World Championship in Kentucky. Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News

Immokalee High School Robotics Team seniors Jenni Villa, left, and Kristian Trevino celebrate winning a match during the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Ky. on Thursday, April 20, 2017. This is day one of three days of competition for the students.(Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)Buy Photo

Worlds collided like slabs of metal in a robotics rink as Immokalee High School competed alongside teams from Kazakhstan to New Zealand under one roof at the 10th annual VEX Robotics World Championship.

The Kentucky Exposition Center, where matches ended Saturdayin Louisville, transformed into an Olympic Village as 1,400 teams from 30 countries and 50 states decorated their booths with cultural memorabilia.

One team from Chengdu, China, lined their table with emerald bamboo shoots, while the booth directly facing them, a team from Muskogee, Oklahoma, went with a hunting theme, covering their walls in a forest green camouflage print and rubber mallard ducks.

Afew rows over, sandwiched between teams from Urumqi, China, and Carrolton, Georgia, two teams from Immokalee hovered over their metal creations, prodding them with Allen wrenches and air compressors.

The robots under operation, named Dragonzord and Megazord, were the brainchildren of a group of seven Immokalee students and their coachFred Rimmler.

Being from Immokalee, you dont really get to meet that many different people, said Dragonzord captain Kristian Trevino, 18. To meet everybody from around the world, its amazing. I think its great.

Immokalee High School Robotics Team senior Kristian Trevino, right, introduces himself to Wen Yuyi, 17, of the Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore during the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Ky. on Friday, April 21, 2017. This is day two of three days of competition for the students.(Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)

Kristian and his teammates spent countless hours after school and on weekends since September assembling and reassembling their robots out of nut and bolts, motors, rubber bands and electrical wiring.

The teams qualified for the state championship in Tampa for the first time and arrived at the world competition as underdogs. Immokalees robotics program is only in its second year, and this was the first year the team competed outside the Collier school district.

We never thought wed make it this far in the first place, said Dragonzord mechanic Isaiah Reyna, 16.

On a 12-foot-square playing field, the bots competed to see how many toy stars and cubes each could throw over to the other side in the allotted two minutes. The robots, driven by a designated team member through a game controller, can gain bonus points for climbing onto a corner post and for driving autonomously.

Team Dragonzord enjoyed a solid run, ending with a ranking of 16 out of 94 in their division after winning seven of their 10 qualifying matches. But the results were just low enough to deter the highest-ranking teams from selecting them as allies for the division finals.

Nobody knew where Immokalee was before, but now that weve started getting our name out there, were considered as one of the best teams in Florida, Isaiah said.

From left, Immokalee High School Robotics Team senior Kristian Trevino, junior Linda Hernandez, and senior Jenni Villa take a break in between matches during the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Ky. on Thursday, April 20, 2017. This is day one of three days of competition for the students.(Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)

Megazord didnt farequite as well, winning just three of their 10 matches because of an unexplainable chronic malfunction. But the team stayed positive and were grateful for the opportunity to represent their small rural town.

Theres a lot of rumors that Immokalees a bad place. This shows that we actually do stuff here, that maybe were not just about agriculture and minorities, said Megazord mechanic George Herrera-Carrillo, 15.

Though they wont be bringing home any hardware, the teams appreciated the opportunity to work with roboticists from other countries including Canada and Singapore.

Isaiah and George enjoyed the unique experience of representing the United States in the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremonies Wednesday.

Everyone was chanting U.S.A.! U.S.A.! he said. There was a lot of excitement and adrenaline going through us.

Immokalee High School Robotics Team seniors Jenni Villa, right, and Kristian Trevino work on their robot before a match during the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Ky. on Friday, April 21, 2017. This is day two of three days of competition for the students.(Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)

Several team members used the occasion to explore their interest in Japanese culture and visited the countrys booth several times. The Japanese team offered them gifts including origami cranes and temporary tattoos with Japanese characters, and the teams added each other on Snapchat and Instagram (a sure sign of the beginning of a teenage friendship in 2017).

Theyre so sweet, said Dragonzord mechanic Jennifer Villa, 18. Its nice to have that camaraderie.

Jennifer was one of two girls on Immokalees teams and took part in the competitions first Girl Powered social, an event aimed at recognizing the intrepid women taking part in a male-dominated field.

We dont need an event to tell us we know how to do (robotics), we already know that, Jennifer said. I think it was more for the boys, to show that we deserve the same respect that guys get.

Immokalee High School Robotics Team junior Isaiah Reyna, left, and senior Kristian Trevino stand among the teams waiting to be chosen for an alliance and a chance to move on the next round during the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Ky. on Saturday, April 22, 2017. This is the third and final day of competition for the students. Both Immokalee teams were eliminated before the finals.(Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)

The students werent the only ones who enjoyed the experience. Kristians parents and three siblings drove 16 hours from Immokalee to join the festivities. His mother, Griselda Trevino, took time away from her job in a tomato packing house to watch her son compete.

The tears began to flow after she watched him annihilate his opponents in the final qualifying match.

Im really proud of my son, she said. Im so happy for him.

Kristians father, William Trevino, a surveillance specialist at the Seminole Casino, said though the family doesnt have a lot of resources, watching his son compete on a global level was too important to miss.

Immokalee High School Robotics Team senior Damian Gonzalez prepares to compete with his robot, Megazord, during the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Ky. on Thursday, April 20, 2017. This is day one of three days of competition for the students.(Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)

Its a once in a lifetime opportunity, he said. Especially for them to go from nothing to something all of a sudden, wow.

Coach Rimmler said he, too, couldnt be more proud of the teams performance.

They far exceeded my expectations in every step of the way this year, he said.

Team Megazord

Damian Gonzalez-Perez

Christopher Rios

George Herrera-Carrillo

Linda Hernandez

Team Dragonzord

Kristian Trevino

Jennifer Villa

Isaiah Reyna

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The opening ceremony for the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky featuring the Immokalee High School robotics team. Annika Hammerschlag/Naples Daily News

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Immokalee High team takes on the world in robotics event in Louisville - Naples Daily News

This is the seventh of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2017.

One wouldn't think that using engineering techniques to create a robot would inspire a student to major in business administration.

But that is what happened to Jessica Mills, an Air Academy High School senior.

This all started when she joined a robotics team in fourth grade. She recalls they made a robot that was able to pick up a tiny polar bear. "I remember it because it was cute," she says.

As the years passed, competition got more serious. This year, for the first time in 14 years, Academy School District 20's robotics team, to which she belongs, qualified for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) world championship in Houston.

She's been a Girl Scout since first grade, and she used technology to earn the Gold Award. The group's highest achievement is awarded to only about 5.4 percent of members.

She won by creating a program called STEM@LIBRARY21c. The idea for the project came when she noticed that the new tech-oriented Pikes Peak Library 21c, didn't seem to have a lot of programs to get younger children involved in STEM (science, technology engineering math).

After consulting with librarians she developed a three-day workshop to introduce youngsters to the free design software and 3-D printers at the library. She also wrote a curriculum based on the workshop and provided it locally and to 49 libraries in 18 states, and Canada.

"I was so excited when one boy told me he used the workshop skills to make a wind turbine that won a science fair."

She also finds history fascinating, and for two summers has been a teen docent at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. And she participates in Academic WorldQuest, a World Affairs Councils of America competition that tests knowledge of history, geography, culture and international affairs. Mills and her team qualified to compete nationally in Washington, D.C., this spring.

But like a lot of high school students bound for college, she says she overloaded on academic and community work last year. A friend died. As she struggled, her grades fell.

"It was a moment of clarity. I need to choose what is really meaningful to me. Slow down, know my limits. It's a lesson I will take to college."

She will major in business administration at the University of Colorado at Boulder with emphasis on marketing and entrepreneurship.

How does that major square with all that STEM and robotics involvement?

For the past two years she was elected chief executive officer for the Rocky Mountain Robotics Club, managing 134 student engineers from six area high schools. She redid the team's business plan and was part of the marketing effort to get industry sponsors.

"The business program at CU feels like home. I think I might like to start a company someday."

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Best and Brightest 2017: Student's focus goes from robotics to business - Colorado Springs Gazette

Hyperloop One, the company trying to bring Elon Musks idea for a tube-based, high-speed transport system to fruition, has lost its chief marketing officer, Kimberly Salzer.

Salzer left Hyperloop One in mid-March after spending a year with the company, she told Recode in an interview.

The executive has now taken a job at Ozobot as its chief marketing officer. Ozobot is a robotics company that makes small robots that can help teach kids how to code. She started last week.

I voluntarily decided to leave, said Salzer, who noted the scope of Hyperloop One was moving in a different direction than her background, which is in consumer technology.

Before her time at Hyperloop, Salzer worked in the video game industry, helping to build brands for Electronic Arts and Activision.

Hyperloop One is delaying the public testing of its tube transport system and reducing the size of its test track that was supposed to host the trial run of the prototype, according to a report earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal.

Its a moonshot idea, and I really respect it, Salzer said about the Hyperloop One project.

Separately, Joby Otero, who formerly held a role as the chief creative officer at the robotics company Anki, is joining Ozobot as its chief product officer. He left Anki, another consumer-facing company that makes a small interactive robot, in January of 2016, Otero shared in an interview.

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Hyperloop One's chief marketing officer has left to join a robotics ... - Recode

Courtesy photo Members of Carney-Nadeau Wolf Robotics are pictured along with the awards they won this year. The team will complete their first year participating in FIRST Robotics at the world championship in St. Louis, Mo. next week, where they will compete with the Gladstone and Bark River-Harris teams.

ST. LOUIS Several local robotics teams will be heading to St. Louis, Mo., for the FIRST Robotics World Championship next week. The event will run from April 26 to April 29.

One team from the Upper Peninsula that will be attending this competition is Gladstones BraveBots. By the end of last weekends FIRST Robotics Michigan State Championship, the BraveBots were one of the highest-ranked teams in the state of Michigan.

We boosted our rank to fourth in the state out of 451 teams, Lead Mentor Tim Barron said.

As a result, they will be going to the FIRST Robotics World Championship. Barron said that, while the BraveBots have gone to this event before, they are doing better than ever in 2017.

This is the highest weve ever been ranked in the state, he said.

According to Barron, it was the effort put in by the BraveBots students and mentors that made this possible.

We have a very dedicated group of kids and mentors, he said.

Wolf Robotics, Carney-Nadeaus FIRST Robotics team, will also be heading to St. Louis next week.

Its almost unexplainable, what were feeling, Co-Lead Mentor Andrea Chaney said.

One of the reasons the team is so excited about going to St. Louis is because Wolf Robotics is a newcomer to the U.P.s robotics scene 2017 was their rookie year.

Its just so unexpected, Chaney said.

Wolf Robotics was ranked at #99 in the state at the end of the FIRST Robotics Michigan State Championship; they also won the State All-Star Rookie Award, allowing them to compete on the international level. Chaney attributed the teams successful season to the hard work put in by the teams members and mentors, along with the assistance given to them by their community.

We had a lot of community support, she said.

Along with teams from Carney-Nadeau and Gladstone, Bark River-Harris I.C.E. Cubed will be attending the FIRST Robotics World Championship. Lead Mentor Mick Reynolds said the first part of the teams name is an acronym for Innovate, Collaborate, Elevate.

Thats what were hoping the kids will learn, he said.

By the end of the FIRST Robotics Michigan State Championship, I.C.E. Cubed ranked as the #36 team in the state.

Were more than qualified, Reynolds said.

This was a better outcome than the team was expecting, Reynolds said.

Our goal was to stay in the top 80 teams, he said. In contrast, I.C.E. Cubeds ranking at this point last year was in the 200s.

Reynolds noted that the students in I.C.E. Cubed are extremely excited to attend the FIRST Robotics World Championship.

The kids are absolutely stoked, he said.

Reynolds said I.C.E. Cubeds success was the result of the people involved with the team.

All the credit for that goes to our high school kids and the adult mentors that help us out, he said.

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Robotics teams off to top tourney - Escanaba Daily Press

Teen honors friend in robotics championship

Chris Williams, WHAS 7:36 PM. EDT April 21, 2017

Teen overcomes heartbreak, obstacles at robotics championship (Photo: WHAS11)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- An estimated 20 thousand people are in Louisville for a world championship you may have never heard of.

Students from middle school to college, 32 countries, and 46 states are competing at the Kentucky Expo Center for the VEX Robotics World Championship. Teams are paired at random and must form an alliance, then take on another alliance in a contest with robots they've built to move game pieces around the playing field.

But a one-person team with a triumph-over-tragedy story will have you rooting for the underdog.

At the VEX Robotics World Championship, you'll find a diverse field of competitors with teams from every corner of the planet. There are all girl teams, and every team's robot has a name.

However, none of the teams robots have a name quite like that of the robot from Nemesis Robotics.

Remington Haingaertner named his robot Grant White after his teammate who died in a crash in November of 2016, which also seriously injured the Haingaertner.

"I do not have a teammate. I'm on a team by myself, said 17-year-old Haingaertner. A few months ago I was in a moped accident where I lost my foot, and my teammate was killed.

At the time, this competition seemed like a longshot, but Haingaertner made quick progress, learning to use his prosthetic, and got to work on his robot.

"I lost my foot in the moped accident and broke my femur, said Haingaertner. I have a rod from my knee to my hip, which has been a struggle walking."

With the help of sponsors and his Dad, the young man, who is about to turn 18, is taking on the world alone.

His mission is filled with roadblocks most will never fully appreciate, and hes facing a fierce competition.

"To me, it's the achievements, explained Haingaertner. I would like to win? Yes. Everybody would. But at the same time, I've won with what I've done. State Champion, that's enough for me, and going through all I have is quite an accomplishment I believe."

In a contest late Friday, a stuck robot and tough opponent were too much, but in the defeat the young man from Fayetteville, Arkansas found meaning.

"It does stink to lose, yes, but you can't win unless you lose some. You have to lose. That's part of life, he said. Through loss, hes still winning.

Maybe not in the competition but overall, said Haingaertner. I believe I've won by being here.

2017 WHAS-TV

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Teen overcomes heartbreak, obstacles at robotics championship ... - WHAS 11.com