FIRST Colorado held its regional robotics competition on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Teams of high school students create robots to complete tasks and earn points. Qualifying teams go to the world competition in Houston this April.
At FIRST Colorado's annual regional robotics competition Saturday, teams of high school students were challenged to build robots and use them to solve problems.
Starting in early January each year, teams meet multiple times weekly to build their robot, program it, strategize and business plan for about 10 weeks leading up to the regional competition.
Members of Team Blitz move their robot into the competition area at the FIRST Colorado robotics competition.
This season, teams are challenged to use innovative engineering, creative thinking and teamwork to reimagine the future of safe, high-speed travel and lightning-fast deliveries to propel the next evolution of transportation forward, according to the FIRST Colorado website.
Conifer High School senior Maddie Potter, part of Team Blitz, said this year the teams were given traffic cones and inflatable cubes to move and place on various tiers with their team's robot. Each tier is worth different numbers of points, with the lowest being the fewest points. There is also a teeter-totter the teams have to balance their robot on for points, Potter said.
A robot balances on a teeter-totter to earn points at the FIRST Colorado robotics competition.
Team Blitz didn't expect to make it as far in the competition as they did, Potter said.
"Our goal today is just to have fun," Potter said.
Ella Seevers, also a senior at Conifer High School and Potter's teammate, said her favorite part of the competition is the community. Team Blitz recently got to work with their local elementary school's robotics club, Seevers said. She also likes the teamwork aspect.
"There's a lot of working with other people," Seevers said. "In the competition, sometimes things are going wrong or aren't going as expected, but we're still a team and figuring it out together."
Maddie Potter, 18, and Ella Seevers, 17, from Team Blitz, pose for a portrait with their cupcakes during their lunch break at the FIRST Colorado robotics competition.
While the competition builds engineering skills, it also builds skills beyond engineering that are applicable to life outside of the competition, Potter said. Potter wants to go into biomedical engineering after high school and has learned a lot about both her career aspirations and life in general.
"I really enjoy the challenges and building problem solving skills and my favorite part is the community and meeting new people," Potter said. "I've met a bunch of people through these competitions that I wouldn't have met otherwise."
Members of Team Blitz hug before a competition round at the FIRST Colorado robotics competition.
FIRST Colorado Program Delivery Partner Katherine Aschenberg said FIRST's goal is to advocate for kids' science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) passions, but also help them build critical life skills.
"It's not just STEM, it's also life because the competition requires teamwork, collaboration, working skills and so many things they'll need for success in life," Aschenberg said. "It's really dealing with people, not just robots."
During the series of regional competitions, teams are allowed to travel and compete in other places, FIRST Colorado's Anya Wiens said.
At the competition Saturday, there were 43 robotics teams from Colorado, other states around the U.S. and a team from the Netherlands, Wiens said.
In the past, Colorado's competition has seen teams from other countries including Mexico and Israel, Wiens said.
Teams who qualify can compete at the world competition in Houston in April.
Colorado FIRST was founded in 2001 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology, according to their website. Their mission is to bring more young people into science and technology leadership by fostering life skills and connecting them with mentors.
