Woodinville's Team SWERVE Wins Award in Robotics Competition

 became a mechanized arena where robots and their high school-aged programmers lifted, rolled and blocked for points, amid cheering fans and loud rock music, for a chance to represent Washington against international competition. Four Washington state robotics teams will be heading to St. Louis in late April to compete in the FIRST world championships. 

In the end, four area teams came out on top Sunday at the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship tournament. The top teams were the CyberKnights from King’s High School in Shoreline, Brit Bots of Sammamish, and Syzygy and SAAS, both of Seattle.

The teams will head to St. Louis in April to compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) world championships. FIRST was started in New Hampshire in 1989. One of the founders was Segway inventor Dean Kamen.

Twenty-four teams from around the Puget Sound participated, including the SWERVE robotics club from Woodinville.

Robots, about the size and weight of small microwave ovens, are required to complete a set of tasks, or in the very least, try to prevent their opponents from completing the tasks, to earn points. Teams also can win awards for other skills, such as creativity and cooperation.

In scoring, teams ran their robots on two fields. The robots faced a number of challenge, such as picking up finger-length batons and dropping them into a dispenser, and balancing on a sort of teeter-totter.

Sounds easy? Not when there are three other robots in the arena trying to stop you. Sometimes they just all end up in a heap of jumbled metal.

The first 40 seconds of the competition are hands-off. Robots have to be pre-programmed by the team to make their moves. The remote controls remain on the floor.

Teams started building their robots in September. They all used the same $700 kit of screws, brackets, wheels, treads and remote controls.

The robots hold a special beauty to the students who work on them for months. 
“It is simple, elegant, powerful, and amazingly heavy,” said Zach Lovett, of team SWERVE, a group of students from Woodinville and surrounding communities. “Just because it is made of aluminum doesn't mean it is light.”

Team SWERVE captured the “Think” award for communication, cooperation and exceptional team effort.

The robots also can be a source of frustration. Mitko Yanev of Top Gun, a group from Eastlake High School in Sammamish, agonized over the gyroscope. “Sometimes the program works perfectly. You assume it is going to be fine, and then it fails,” he said, staring at his computer. “We have been testing it a long time.”

The surprise team of the day was Brit Bot, a small family team from Sammamish made up of Levi Fussell, his brother Marlon, and coached by their dad, Mark Fussell.

“The robot is side heavy.  When we drive over anything it wants to tip,” Levi Fussell said early in the day.

In the end, Brit Bot nearly toppled the CyberKnights of King's High School in Shoreline -- and kings of the local robot scene. CyberKnights have swept previous contests held throughout the year, and they prevailed again on Sunday.

CyberKnights, along with their Shoreline sister team, CyberDaze, didn’t disappoint their fans on Sunday.

Dressed in lab coats and wearing the protective goggles required in the rules, CyberKnights looked every bit the young engineers.

They were crowned Washington State Champions and led their alliance team to victory. They also won the coveted “Innovate” award for inventive solutions and for helping other teams.

A key part of the robot competition is to build alliances. In the final round, teams select another team to join them in competition against another pair.

“The team we worked with in the alliance was great. They worked with us and they understood the tactics,” said CyberKnight Randall Ersoz.

Win Lessley ticked off a list of reasons for CyberKnights’ success, but said it really all boils down to their talented programmer, Emmett Lam, who turns their ideas into perfectly timed motion.

The teams dress in matching caps or shirts to emphasize their team unity and to show their spirit.  One group donned matching fuzzy penguin hats, another had glittery baseball caps. The BuzzBots brought along a buzzing bee cheerleader.

The youngest-age team in the Sunday competition was from Edmonds, C3P-Owned. After an event they rushed back to their pit carrying their robot, and looking grim.

“Our robot catastrophically failed,” said Christopher Dombroski, looking at the broken robot they had labored over for months. The motor was burned out.

In earlier competitions, C3P-Owned had stunned crowds with their teamwork and technical ability, winning first place in the regional contest in December.

They came to the competition Sunday filled with optimism, but were looking crushed by mid-afternoon.

The EHS BuzzBots of Enumclaw High School are newcomers to the robot games. They quickly learned that cooperation is as critical as competition in FIRST.

“We are the rookies here, a first-year team, and we aren't in last place, so that's a very good thing,” said BuzzBots' Juanita Torres.

“A big part of the competition is getting to know the other teams,” said Danielle Terrell. Now the team brings bags of candy or bottles of water labeled with their team logo to share with the other teams. They wear matching gold shirts making them instantly memorable when they go to help another team.

BuzzBots were given the “Judges” award on Sunday for “many amazing qualities” for exactly that big effort.

It’s a ton of fun, but there is a serious side to the contest as well.

Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology noted that 10 percent of its incoming freshman were FIRST participants.

FIRSTWA chairman Kevin Ross looked at the teams with immense pride.

“I do this year after year because of the lives it can change,” he said.

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