District 214’s WildStang returns home as world champions

Beware of teens wearing tie-dyed T-shirts. They just might be members of the WildStang robotics team, and they are a force to be reckoned with.

Members of the team — drawn from Rolling Meadows, Prospect and Wheeling high schools — returned home Sunday as world champions.

For the second time in three years, and third time overall, WildStang won the FIRST Robotics Competition, beating out 365 teams from five countries in the event held at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

But they didn’t do it alone.

When asked how they emerged from the field, students had the same answer: They got lucky with their alliances during the final elimination rounds.

“We finished in ninth place after the preliminaries,” said Head Coach Mark Koch, a robotics teacher at Rolling Meadows High School, “But we were selected as an alliance by the number two ranked team. It was the best of all possible worlds.”

They eventually partnered with two teams from Northern California to advance to the championship.

Motorola engineer Dan Rooney, one of nearly a dozen adult mentors working with the 68 teens who make up the team, credits the student’s work done long before the competition season with building the foundation for success.

“The kids made the design drawings for the robot’s structure,” said Rooney, a mechanical engineer with Motorola Solutions in Schaumburg. “They helped us build a prototype, wiring its controls and doing all the drilling and riveting.”

Senior Alyssa Zielinski of Arlington Heights, a four-year WildStang member and one of only seven girls on the team, said each team member had an assignment.

“We’re divided into different sub-teams,” Zielinski said. “There’s the electrical, mechanical, and software sub-teams, and we all work on our separate areas during the competition.”

During competition rounds, their nearly six-foot tall robot competed on a 27-by-54-foot field, attempting to earn points by hanging as many triangle, circle and square logo pieces onto poles as possible.

WildStang’s robot emerged early from the pack by scoring points autonomously during the round’s opening minutes. It continued to build speed through the match, picking up inner tubes.

“The robot has two speeds—fast and faster,” said Rooney. “(It) picks up the tubes on the ground while driving fast.”

Junior Michael McKenna of Arlington Heights said excitement built through the finals, as their robot surprised even WildStang members with its ability to score.

“We were part of the highest scoring match in the competition,” McKenna said. “We have a very offensive robot.”

FIRST, an acronym meaning For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is a series of robotics competitions created in 1989 by Dean Kamen to combine the excitement of sports with the rigors of science and technology. It is commonly referred to as a “varsity sport for the mind.”