Robotics Club N.E.R.D.S. Compete
SUCCESS FOR THE ROBOT N.E.R.D.S. OF BARNARD
Saturday, January 30, was the date of the sixth qualifying event of FIRST TECH CHALLENGE (FTC) for the state of Missouri at UMKC.
At the end of Qualifying, NERDS #9960 ranked 3rd among the 24 teams in the Kauffman Division and posted a tie for the highest single match score. The #1 team was a 3yr old team from a 1,000 student school in Warrenton, MO and the #2 team was a 3yr old team from a 1,900 student school in Springdale, AR. South Nodaway has approx. 90 students. Some of the teams competing had as much as 5 years of experience. The NERDS did not advance beyond the first round of elimination matches due to a mechanical difficulty experienced by an opposition team that blocked #9960 from it’s final major task. That was to climb a Jungle Jim type mountain and chin it’s self on the top bar. This one task was worth almost half of the round score.
The scoring and advancement is a complicated process in FTC but if you use a NASCAR analogy it is simplified somewhat. Qualifying 3rd is like a rooky driver starting behind the pole sitter in a race and after setting a record for the fastest lap then being taken out in a wreck in the race.
