Readers may or may not know that one of my other non-work activities is as a mentor for our local high school’s FIRST Robotics Competition team. Like all sports, COVID seriously dented competition with most of the 2020 season and all of the 2021 season cancelled but 2022 is back on and we start competition this weekend on home turf in Dripping Springs High School. 32 teams from across Texas will be competing in a game called “Rapid React” which involves gathering soccer-type balls and shooting them into a target 8 feet above the ground then climbing a series of monkey bars to score extra points. If you’re in the area, drop by and enjoy the only sport where 100% of the competitors can go pro!
Here are some of the members of “The Spring Konstant” from our rather challenging 2021 season. Despite the pandemic and lack of in-person competition, this intrepid crew, and several more who contributed remotely via Zoom calls, built a robot and entered video-based challenges. We actually made some very significant progress on our designs and software so hopefully this will pay off in 2022.
You can find pictures from the 2022 FIRST in Texas Dripping Springs event at https://davewilson.smugmug.com/Robotics/FIT-Texas-District-Dripping-Springs-2022/.
For the technically inclined...