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Robotics teams from all three Hazelwood School District high schools competed at the St. Louis FIRST Robotics Competition, FRC, at Chaifetz Arena on March 15 and 16. Hazelwood West High School advanced to the FRC World Championship competition in late April at the Edward Jones Dome.

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is a national program founded in 1992 in New Hampshire. FRC is designed for head-to-head competition using a sport themed activity. Teams of students are responsible for designing, building and programming robots to compete in an alliance against other teams. Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop a strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles.

This year the FRC game is called Ultimate Ascent. It is played by two competing alliances on a flat, 27 by 54 foot field. Each alliance consists of three robots. The robots will compete to get as many discs into their goals as they can during a two minute and fifteen second match. The match ends with robots attempting to climb pyramids located near the middle of the field. Each robot earns points based on how high it climbs the pyramid. The robots cannot be more than 112 inches in perimeter, no more than 84 inches in height and cannot weigh more than 120 pounds.

Approximately 40 students from HSD competed on three teams. The three teams competed among the 43 teams at the event. Hazelwood Central High School was represented by the RoboHawks, Hazelwood East High School was represented by the Tech Titan and Hazelwood West High School was represented by the Shrapnel Sergeants. This was the first year of competition for the HEHS Tech Titans.

The RoboHawks and the Shrapnel Sergeants advanced to the semi-finals, with the Shrapnel Sergeants advancing to the finals and earning a bid at the World Championship event in April.

The RoboHawks also won the Industrial Design Award. Sponsored by General Motors, the Industrial Design Award celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively addresses the game challenge.

The Shrapnel Sergeants, looking forward to the World Championship,  have already begun preparing for the competition. (story courtesy of Hazelwood School District Communications