Palo Alto: Gunn robotics team advances to championship – The Mercury News

The Gunn High School robotics team will advance to the national and world FIRST Robotics Competition Championship in April in Houston.

The Gunn Robotics Team qualified for the championships after ranking first at the Arizona North Regional on March 11, the first time the team has won a regional since 2013.

The team also won the Excellence in Engineering Award at the regional event in Flagstaff, which they also won at the Hub City Regional in Lubbock, Texas.

Team captain Mihir Juvvadi said that judges were impressed with the teams use of alternative construction techniques, such as laser cutting and 3D printing, as well as the teams design and prototyping process.

Everything we could have possibly hoped for out of this regional happened, Juvvadi said in summarizing the event.

The teams first match at the regional was a little rocky but things improved with more preparation, said Juvvadi, a senior at Gunn.

What should have been a home run match paired with another high-performing robot went very poorly, and following it, we scrambled to prepare for the rest of the day, Juvvadi said. That preparation paid off however, and that first match was our only loss of the day.

The Gunn team formed an alliance with teams from Monte Vista High School in Cupertino and Beyer High School in Modesto to compete in the tournaments playoffs.

Seth Mallory, who has mentored the Gunn team for 15 years, was recognized at the regional event with the Woodie Flowers Award for being an outstanding mentor.

He personifies the mission of the program, that is to guide students to discover solutions for themselves, rather than be handed it, Juvvadi said. His dedication to the team allows it to continue year after year, and the program would not be what it is without him.

Juvvadi also said the student-guided organization benefits from the mentor support of lead mentor Kristina Granlund-Moyer.

Paly Robotics Team 8 ranked 20th at the Ventura Regional, which ended Saturday, and earned the FIRST Deans List Finalist Award, Creativity Award and Entrepreneurship Award.

These local high school teams and others will be in action this year at the annual Silicon Valley Regional, set for March 29 to April 1 in San Jose.

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Palo Alto: Gunn robotics team advances to championship - The Mercury News