The Becker Robotics team held their end-of-the-season banquet Tuesday to celebrate their successes, honor coaches, sponsors and students and talk about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of their 2017 season.
Family and friends were invited to the get-together Tuesday where an open house was featured from 6-7 p.m. and an awards show following from 7-8 p.m. The awards show in the old auditorium of the high school also focussed on the departing seniors and how much they meant to the program and how much they appreciated being part of it.
This year’s season started with Jumpstart in December at SCSU. Jumpstart is a training event hosted by Becker’s CIS 4607 team and is utilized to bring other teams together for collaboration and idea-sharing.
The event started in 2015 with 22 teams and 280 participants and has grown to 25 teams and 405 participants in 2017.
The 2017 game was entitled, “FIRST Steamworks” and featured robots being able to collect fuel (balls) and score them in the boiler via high and low efficiency goals. The boilers turn the fuel into steam pressure, which is stored in the steam tank on their airship. However, it took more than just fuel to build the steam, so robots had to scoop up and deliver gears to the pilots of the airships for installation. Once the gear train was complete, the pilots turn the crank to start the rotor.
At that time, the robots must latch on to their airship before launch (at the end of the match) by ascending their ropes to signal they were ready for takeoff.
Senior Laura Niday, the team’s logistics member and engineer, said, “4607’s success stems from the well-rounded students who make up our team.”
“We have aspiring engineers, accountants, athletes, artists, actors and everything in between,” she said. “The diversity on our team contributes to our growth in STEM classes in the school.”
Joel Wilson, another senior on the squad and the team’s director of engineering said CIS 4607 was designed to be more than juts about robots.
“The founding members distinctly chose a name that would unite independent thinkers,” he said. Building on that framework, the team has pushed hard to bring robotics and STEM activities to the other schools in Becker.
That meaning that robotics is being enjoyed by more than just the high school program. Over 170 students are participating in FIRST (an acronym meaning “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”) programs just in the Becker area alone.
This year’s CIS 4607 team competed in the 10,000 Lakes Regional at the Williams Arena at U of M in April and the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth in March. For the second year in a row, CIS 4607 won the prestigious North Star Chairman’s Award, honoring the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.
CIS 4607 is proud of their numerous, valuable sponsors, who help them to bring their ideas to life, function and develop as a team as well as individuals.
The following companies and people are mentioned with the deepest gratitude: Alcoa Foundation, Federal Cartridge, Vet/Vonco II, Exhibit Partners, Becker Robotics Boosters, Liberty paper, Xcel Energy, Darter Plastics, Clear Lake Lions, Santiago Lions, Franklin Graphics, MN Limited, Monticello Lions, Excalibur Collision & Conversion Center, Central MN. Manufacturer’s Assn., Batteries + Bulbs, Sherburne State Bank, Vern Jurek Construction, STARCOR Credit Union, Becker Lions Club, Country lumber, Lanzar Systems, SEH, Northland Refrigeration & Power, Great River Energy, Becker Furniture World, Bernick’s Pepsi, Gold ‘N Plump Chicken, Elk River Winlectric, SCSU, NDSU-Bison Robotics, Central MN., Robotics Hub and T.J. Potter Trucking, Inc.
