Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Robotic's team finishes official season at EMU state competition, wins prestigious safety award (updated with link to slideshow from competition)

NOTE: To view a slideshow courtesy of Joseph Barczyk on Flickr, click on here.)

The Taylor School District's FIRST Robotics Team competed in the state competition at the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center last weekend and came away with the Underwriters Laboratory Safety Award, a prestigious honor.

The award is given to the team that best exemplifies outstanding team safety practices. The judges were impressed not only by the CPR training that each team member received, but also by the MSDS documentation, the first air manual and supplies and the active warning system that the team uses when the robot was energized in the pit area.

Taylor's safety effort led by TnT 280 safety team captain and Kennedy High School junior Erin Strausser.

Overall, after successfully competing in two local regionals, the state competition was more difficult due to the large number of high quality robots. The state competition at EMU was considered on of the most difficult in the country, according to those involved.

The Taylor unit, made up of students from both Kennedy and Truman, worked hard and put up a great effort during the three-day event, but were unable to overcome a number of mechanical and software problems.

This year's formal competition season is now over for the TNT team, but students will continue to compete in several "pickup" competitions with an eye on honing their skills for next year.

For more information on the team and the program, click on the team's Web site at www.tnt280.com. For more information about FIRST and the competition, click on www.usfirst.org.

Below is the TnT 280 Robotics Family Video posted on You Tube by Sarah Root in September 2012 when the school year started.



If anyone has still digital photos of the EMU competition and the TnT 280 team (or more video), email Karl Ziomek at karlziomek11@gmail.com.


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