The Becker Robotics team is heading to the worlds championships!

 

Last week, the team traveled to Mariucci Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota for their North Star Regional tournament. Though their robot did not make it to the end and did not win the competition, the team did take home the prestigious Chairman's Award and will be heading to the World's Championship Competition in St. Louis, MO,  April 27-30. 

 

The North Star Regional Chairman's Award is the most renowned award at FIRST,  honoring the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.

 

The team — FRC 4607 CIS (Coalition of Independent Students) and their department of submissions group put together a presentation using a “red carpet” theme for the regional competition. The theme depicted one student as a TV interviewer and other students were all decked out as “celebrities”.

 

“We had to write an essay, make a video and have a presentation at the regional,” said robotics member Olivia Hultgren. “We started the planning for the presentation in November, wrote the outline for the essay, finished the essay by January and worked on the video in December and January.”

 

“We did the red carpet theme and Olivia was the ‘reporter’ and Sam (Somrock) and I were like the stars of the movie and we kinda talked about what our program does and stuff like that,” said Kelsi Halvorson.

 

The Chairman's Award is presented to the team judged to have the most significant measureable impact of its partnerships among its participants and community over a sustained period, not just a single build season. The winner is able to demonstrate progress towards FIRST's mission of transforming its culture. 

 

A significant achievement for a team that is in only its fourth year of existence. FRC 4607 CIS has grown from a group of five semi-interested students, to one of the largest robotics programs in the state. 

 

Becker is now invited to the FIRST World Championship where it will compete for the Chairman's Award against the winners from all other qualifying events.

 

This rising star team has grown four times in size in the past four years. And its targeted recruiting has resulted in their incoming team members being 50% female.

 

One of the team members that was also part of the Worlds Championship team four years ago is Kyle Schroeder, who is being looked upon to help this year’s team and their expectations for Missouri.

“It was great and really an eye-opener four years ago and I think a lot of my teammates this year are curious about what to expect, but don’t want me to spoil it for them either,” said Schroeder. “It should be quite an experience that they’ll probably never forget.”

 

The team touches education at all levels, from starting and mentoring FLL teams in surrounding elementary schools, to inspiring their school district to build a STEM center, to partnering with local universities to host robot events. For team graduates, they have even worked with a local company to provide summer internships for FRC alumni. One graduate was sufficiently inspired to start a robotics club at his university, which of course was founded on the principles of gracious professionalism.

 

This team has contributed to a remarkable partnership that aids and supports teams in their region. They are the founding member of a regional FRC hub, and they created an FRC training workshop that attracts over 22 FRC teams. They even reached beyond their solar system to provide critical assistance to a struggling team from the big city - before and after competition.

 

“We made it to eliminations in the quarterfinals and lost two matches  so we were removed from the competition,” said drive team member Joel Wilson. “But it’s great to get another chance when we go to Worlds and compete with hundreds of other teams.”

 

Missouri is expected to see upwards of 600 teams at the World Tournament. Becker is also qualified to compete at state at the end of May.

 

Alex Jurek, the team’s head coach and mentor, won the Woodie Flowers Award at the North Star Regional as well. 

 

The Woodie Flowers Award is the highest award for a mentor to receive at the regional event and he is now a candidate for the award at the World Championship level in Missouri.