NYAN Robotics team advancing to FTC Super Regionals

Posted March 04, 2016 10:00 pm

Submitted by Jeff Coda

NYAN Robotics from Mundelein just finished competing with 36 teams in the Illinois State Robotics Championship at Elgin Community College. They were the fifth pick out of eight advancing to Super Regionals March 18-19 in Cedar Rapids Iowa, where 72 teams from the Midwest compete for a spot at the FTC World Championships.

Comprising local high school students working in a basement lab and funded by sponsors, NYAN ("Not Your Average Nerds") is a rookie team competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge. Their custom-designed robot, aptly named JARVIS, is designed to operate both autonomously and with driver control, on a playing field completing various tasks to earn points with an alliance partner.

Teams can receive awards for winning scores and also for robot design, overall team dynamics, outreach to community and a few other elements. Besides making it to the semifinals, NYAN had the highest cumulative scoring robot at the competition, third highest match score and received the Connect Award for community outreach and STEM promotion.

Besides making it into the finals in the last three competitions, NYAN also has previously won the Control Award, Outstanding Rookie Award, third-place Think Award and a third-place Inspire Award.

"It's a lot of hard work, but we are having so much fun and learning so many skills that will significantly help us in the future," said Danny Donahoe, co-captain of NYAN Robotics.

"We never thought we'd get to Super Regionals as a rookie team, but now we feel confident that we and our robot can compete with the best."

FIRST's mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, teamwork, communication and leadership.

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