(Photo courtesy of Mt. View High School)
Mt. View High School’s FIRST robotics team, the High Desert Droids, completed the second of their Pacific Northwest district tournaments this past weekend, advancing to the Quarterfinals and winning the tournament Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen. The Imagery Award is given to celebrate attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration of machine and team appearance.
The team will find out if they qualify for the District Championship event taking place in April in Portland within the next several weeks.
The High Desert Droids’ robot, “d/t Raptor” (pronounced, “Velocity Raptor”), was designed, built, and programmed over the course of six weeks this winter to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition game, “FIRST Power Up.” The robot is capable of manipulating “power cubes” onto weighted platforms of varying heights as well as into a chute. Under certain circumstances the robot can also climb a tower by lifting itself up on a bar.
The team is seeking community support with the upcoming McMenamins Friends and Family Night fundraiser on Tuesday, March 20, when McMenamins will donate 50% of total sales for the evening to the High Desert Droids as well as Summit High School’s team, Chaos Theory. If you’re unable to attend the Friends and Family fundraiser, the team also accepts direct donations online at https://touchbase.bend.k12.or.us/
Season Highlights
Oregon City Tournament: Ranked 16th after qualifying matches, first pick for 8th seed finals alliance, Quarterfinalists.
Wilsonville Tournament: Ranked 15th after qualifying matches, first pick for 8th seed finals alliance, Quarterfinalists, and winner of the Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen.
Currently the High Desert Droids are ranked 19th in the Pacific Northwest District.
About FIRST Team 753 – High Desert Droids
FIRST Robotics Team 753, known as the High Desert Droids, has been bringing engineering and science opportunities to our local youth since 2002. We are thrilled to have both home-schooled and traditional students from around Central Oregon as members of our team. The students collaborate to build one team robot that will compete with other groups from around the globe. We have about 30 team members who are excited to build amazing robots! Learn more at http://www.team753.com/, check out our Facebook page, and watch our 2018 Chairman’s Award video submission.
