Schools

Walton Robotics Season Heating Up

Last weekend's Ultimate Ascent event at Georgia Tech was the first of six weeks of "full build" activity.

Last Saturday marked the beginning of the six-week long build season for the Walton High School Robotics team.

First Robotics Competition students from all over the state gathered at Georgia Tech for the debut of the 2013 game Ultimate Ascent, a spin-off of the popular activity Ultimate Frisbee.

As described by FIRST:

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“Ultimate Ascent is played by two competing alliances on a flat, 27 x 54 foot
field. Each Alliance consists of three robots, and they compete to score as many
discs into their goals as they can during a two-minute and fifteen-second match.
The higher the goal in which the disc is scored, the more points the Alliance
receives.

"The match begins with a fifteen-second Autonomous Period in which robots
operate independently of driver inputs. Discs scored during this period are worth
additional points. For the remainder of the match, drivers control robots and try to maximize their alliance score by scoring as many goals as possible. The match ends with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field.”

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Walton junior Nick Perry said: “I am interested to study the physics of the flying disk and how it will affect our robot design.” Even our rookie members are caught up in the excitement of the coming months. “I was on our FTC team at my middle school, and it’s really exciting to finally work with the professional robots in high school."

"This year will be really intriguing,” said freshman Annika Daya.

In its fifth year, Walton Robotics (FRC Team 2974) is attracting attention with its group of 43 talented students, dedicated coach, and skilled mentors. The team's mission is to help student develop personal and professional skills, inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and promotes STEM as fun and rewarding, and a pathway to a brighter future. Team members aim to change the perception of STEM in their community and across the world through collaboration and encouragement, while having fun.

Considered “the varsity sport for the mind,” the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) combines the excitement of sports with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time restrictions, these FRC high school teams are challenged to raise funds, promote STEM while as a team designing, building and programming robots to excel in playing a new sport every year against field of impressive competitors. It is as close to real-world engineering and business development as the students can get while still in high school.

Volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team.

Support for the Walton team is provided by GE Volunteers Foundation, Taylor & Mathis, Automated Logic, Lockheed Martin, UPS, Novelis, Women in Technology, Dixie Industrial Finishing, Rotary Club of East Cobb, TSheets, Benton Advisory Group, Knowledge Shop, Mansour Center, PBWorks, LabArchives, Inmotion Hosting, Net2Atlanta, Safety Glasses USA, and Sequence Technologies.

 

 



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