Local high schools return from robotics championship – East Oregonian (subscription)

Photo courtesy of the Umatilla School District

The Confidential robotics team from Umatilla High School attended the FIRST Robotics Competition World Finals in Houston in April.

Photo courtesy of the Pendleton School District

Pendleton High Schools Modern Americans robotics team poses by their robot at the FIRST Robotics Competition World Finals in Houston in April.

Two Umatilla County high school robotics teams have returned from the FIRST Robotics Competition World Finals in Houston with some valuable experience and memories.

In its sixth year with a robotics program, Umatilla High School took 48 members of the Confidential team to Texas, according to a press release from the InterMountain Education Service District.

Confidential and its robot, Dewey, performed well enough that they were able to advance to the World Level for the first time in school history, joining an alliance of teams from Georgia, California and Israel.

Although Confidential bowed out during the quarterfinal round, students were grateful for their time at the finals.

Going to Houston was so exciting, its an experience that I wouldnt miss for the world, Umatilla junior Madison Finck said. It really is amazing getting to meet people from all over the world knowing that you all have one thing in common; the love for FIRST and STEM.

Pendleton High School took their first trip to finals, sending six members from the True Americans team and their robot, BillyBot.

Being rookies at the competition, Pendleton received help throughout the competition from Umatilla in the form of equipment transportation and robot troubleshooting.

Despite some help from another team from the Northwest, Circuit Breakers, Modern Americans were not able to make it past the qualifying rounds, although it didnt dampen their pride.

The magnitude of the friendly competition was enormous! PHS freshman Landon Thornburg said.

Both teams also received guided tours at NASAs Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, producing another learning opportunity.

I got to talk to the former director of NASA, and I was so excited I felt like a little girl meeting a princess, Umatilla junior Anthony Borchert said. NASA was an amazing opportunity to see the things I have only ever read about or seen on TV.

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Local high schools return from robotics championship - East Oregonian (subscription)