George Mason High School FIRST Robotics Team 1418

The George Mason High School FIRST Robotics Team 1418 had a great time at the FIRST Robotics DC Regional Competition at the DC Convention Center on March 24 through 26. After an exciting two days of intense play, our team ranked thirteenth out of sixty-three teams and was picked to join a three-team alliance comprised of the second-ranked team from Oakton High School in Fairfax and Boys’ Latin School of Maryland in the quarter-finals. The alliance played well, but lost two tightly contested matches, and team members and mentors are looking forward to going to the Virginia Regional at VCU’s Siegel Center in Richmond on April 7th through 9th.

Here is a letter that teacher and coach John Ballou sent to the faculty at George Mason. It will give you an idea of the excitement of last week’s competition:

“George Mason’s Robotics team played a hard-fought competition at the DC Convention Center this weekend. They ultimately came in 13th in the preliminary standings out of 62 other teams, and were picked to play in the 2nd seeded alliance for the finals. We were eliminated in the quarter finals by two extremely close matches, losing 73 to 75 in quarter final one, and 66 to 75 in quarter final two with our minibot one foot away from scoring 20 points at the final buzzer.

 

“The team improved dramatically over the two day competition, ultimately winning seven timesand losing three. Each match taught the team something new about the robot and how to make it better. This game had a 15 second autonomous period where the robot operated entirely on its own, then 90 seconds of tele-operated play where the robot is driven by two students to score inner tubes on a scoring rack, finished by a 20 second period for deploying a small robot to climb a ten foot pole. Our robot can now score 6 points autonomously, place an entire logo of tubes in the tele-operated period, and deploy a mini-bot very consistently, something we could not do during most of the matches held Friday. We were the leading scorer in our alliance group every time we played Saturday morning.

 

“The students worked extremely hard to improve between matches, frequently testing our capabilities on a practice field and making modifications in our pit area. We have now played the game as successfully as we hoped, and are eager to show our stuff at the Virginia Regional in Richmond next week (April 7, 8, & 9). If this team plays like it did on the last day of this competition, we should find ourselves in the playoffs once again against a very impressive array of mostly Virginia teams. Of the 62 teams scheduled, only 9 will be from out of state.

 

“The attention to detail, the problem solving, and the resourcefulness of this team is the real accomplishment this last weekend. Things went wrong that we did not anticipate, equipment failed, rulings went against us, but at no time did this team fail to figure out what to do next and to go back and play better the next match. It is amazing how little it takes for something to go wrong in a test like this competition. Our team did not quit; they came off the field fierce to make improvements and go back and play some more. By the end of the day, we felt like we could play against the best teams on the field. I wish you all could have witnessed the dramatic progress this team made over the three days in DC.

 

“We look forward to starting the fourth quarter with a more triumphal match in Richmond. Nothing could exceed the intensity of what this young team did this last weekend, or better represent how they overcame setbacks, solved complex technical dilemmas with the materials on hand, and improved in speed and accuracy on the playing field. They have every reason to be congratulated and celebrated.”

 

John BallouFIRST Team 1418, George Mason High School

 

All FIRST Robotics events are free and open to the public. We’d love to have a large cheering section next weekend in Richmond.