Robotics Team Places 3rd in Area Contest

Building a robot from a box of screws, wood and rubber bands may not sound like an easy task, but a group of Allen students used those parts plus a remote, servos and motors to build a competition-ready machine.

They entered their design in the annual Boosting Engineering Science and Technology (BEST) robotics competition in Huntsville on October 25 and walked away with a third-place prize for their efforts.

Each year, BEST gives competitors a new game, the parts and six weeks to do their best to build a winning device. This year, BEST’s theme was bugs and required the robots to roll around collecting three types of bugs and deposit them in one of three containment areas. The students had to steer the robot around debris before dropping the bugs off.

Nathan McCoy, Allen’s student services coordinator, is the team sponsor. "This year's team pulled from their experiences from past competitions and built a robot that was simple and practical in design that could consistently perform the tasks set forth by this year's challenge,” he explained.

Students from 22 schools competed in the high-pressure competition, where often creatively-designed robots failed to complete the objectives. Allen’s team stayed focused, rid the area of insects, and beat out a lot of very good teams in the process.

"There was a lot enthusiasm that came from the students that were new to BEST this year.  The veterans did a good job of sharing their wisdom and channeling that enthusiasm into productive contributions to the robot,” Mr. McCoy said.