PWNAGE robotics team heads to world championships
With its second regional competition win in a row, PWNAGE Robotics Team 2451 from St. Charles is heading to the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championships. The latest victory came at the FIRST Midwest Regional competition at the University of Illinois-Chicago March 31-April 1.
The team won this regional competition along with their alliance partners Teams 1511 Rolling Thunder and 1625 Winnovation. PWNAGE Team members include: Ally Bowgren, Jennifer Bozich, Baillie Caldwell, Claire Caldwell, Alex Caswell Jr., Josh Drexler, David Ellers, Christina Faulkner, Luke Feeney, Axel Gallegos, Justin Gallegos, Peter Garnache, Maribel Gonzalez, Brady Hare, Rosie Johnson, Nathan Kein, Noah Konters, David Kovari, Reed Krantz, Donovan McKay, Jonah Meretsky, Dan Napierkowski, Colin Oleniczak, Jackson Sokolowski, Robby Spayth, Justin Suess, Alexander Vickery, Bryce Williams, Camden Williams and Danielle Yingst.
PAWNAGE mentors include: Scott Hale, Kevin Ainsworth, Paul Hammerschmidt, Ron Faulkner, John Winans, Dan Lucka, Tom Blassick, Michael Bowgren, Kenton Cabiness, Jim Draus, Kelsey Draus, David Ellers, and Jeff Good.
The team's first regional win was at the Miami Valley Regional competition in Springfield, Ohio at Wittenberg University on March 10-11.
Together with their alliance partners Team 48 Delphi E.L.I.T.E. and 4085 Technical Difficulties, they teamed up to advance to the championships at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, April 27-28.
In addition to their victory, PWNAGE also won the Excellence in Engineering award sponsored by Delphi. This award celebrates an advantageous feature of a team's robot. The team's robot has a sophisticated intake that allows the robot to pick up a gear and game balls together. This is helpful to advance scoring in the 2017 FIRST Steamworks competition. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competitions are the varsity sport for the mind; they combine excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology.
PWNAGE robotics is a community team made up of students from 10 Chicago western suburban high schools and home school members. After two consecutive wins, PWNAGE robotics will be competing in their last regional competition Seven Rivers in Lacrosse, Wisconsin April 14-15. Then the team will travel to St. Louis to compete in the St. Louis FIRST Championships where they will face off with more than 200 domestic and international competitors.
Follow the team's world championship performance at www.firstchampionship.org. For more information about the team, visit www.pwnagerobotics.com.