Riverside robotics team raising money to attend world championships – KCRG

RIVERSIDE, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) -- Students from several eastern Iowa schools will get the chance to show off their designing, building, and engineering skills to the world.

They're members of seven robotics teams in the state that will be competing in the First Tech Challenge World Championships in St. Louis later this month. One of them is the Highland Robotics team from the Highland Community School District in Riverside. Members of the team said they're excited.

"Insanely thrilled. At the beginning of the year it was my goal to try to get us to worlds this year" said Sam Smith, a Highland High School junior on the robotics team.

That's the vibe everyone's feeling on the Highland Robotics team, also known as the "Finger Tightans." They lost in the state championships but were one of two teams selected in a wild card lottery to move on to the world championships. This is the team's first appearance at the FTC World Championships.

"It is so wonderful to see the teams down at the world championship especially the ones from Iowa. It's great to see familiar faces. It's great to hang out and celebrate their accomplishments with them" said Rebecca Whitaker, a First Tech Challenge affiliate partner for Iowa.

The coach says his team is very dedicated.

"They're in here a lot. They're here before or after school. They've been here some pretty late nights getting ready for competition" said Tim Surine, the coach of the "Finger Tightans."

It's not just putting the nuts and bolts together to make the robot work. There's community outreach, graphic design, program writing, and teamwork.

"If you don't have that team chemistry then you aren't synced up on what you're doing and communication would be difficult but with a group that's close knit and this together, all going to the same school and being in the same age range it's really important" said Smith.

Here's how it works. They use the robot to toss whiffle-balls up into a basket to score points, kind of like minature robot basketball. But it's not all fun and games. The team needs to raise a few thousand dollars to fund their trip to worlds in two weeks. If you would like to contribute to the team's fundraising efforts to be able to go to the competition, you can visit their Go Fund Me page at https://www.gofundme.com/FingerTightans or you can visit Highland High School to make a donation.

They'll compete against 120 teams from 80 different countries who are bringing their own robotic style and strategy. Other Iowa teams competing are from Davenport, Denver, Pella, Garner, Benton Community in Van Horne and Sioux City. It's unusual to have that many teams make it to the World Championships. First Tech Challenge Iowa says usually two or three schools make it. The World Championships take place from April 25 to April 29.

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Riverside robotics team raising money to attend world championships - KCRG