The Springdale High School GearHogs, whose mentors include industrial engineering assistant professor Chase Rainwater and College of Engineering graduate Scott Turley, were awarded the Rookie All-Star Award for the Midwest Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.
To prepare for the competition, the team designed and built a robot according to the competition standards. At the three-day competition, the robot played a game called Logo Motion, which involved securing game pieces on a 10 foot scoring grid. In the three different phases of the game, the robot performed autonomously and was controlled remotely by the students.
As a result of winning the Rookie All-Star award, the team was invited to attend the FIRST World Championships. This event, which involved teams from all over the world, including the U.S., Isreal, Australia, Turkey and France, was the subject of an ABC special featuring Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Rainwater reported that the team learned a lot at the competition, and that he hopes to start a regional FIRST competition at the U of A.