Category Archives: Robotics

FULTON, Ill. Next year Fulton High School students will have the opportunity to take a year-long class in robotics.

The River Bend School Board approved a request to add the FIRST Tech Challenge course beginning with the 2017-2018 school year. The board voted 6-1, with Nick Crosthwaite voting no, to add the course.

Crosthwaite said he was voting no due to the timing of adding the course and the fact that registration had already taken place.

"Let's know what we're going to offer on a timely basis," he said.

Joe Holmbo said he voted yes for the proposal because adding courses like these are what makes Fulton High School stand out from other area schools, and provides unique opportunities for students.

According to a course description, the yearlong course acts as an introduction to robotics in a competitive format. In addition to in-school work, the students will be required to work out of school and attend at least four competitions throughout the year.

"Teams of up to 10 students are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams," information from the district reads.

The coursework also includes working with mentors in different industries, including engineering, marketing and business and programming.

The course will be graded on 10 percent daily course work, 40 percent on a student's engineering notebook and 50 percent on tests and major projects.

A course outline also states how each quarter of the school year will be used for the class, with the first quarter building on the basic principles of engineering and robotics alongside early planning for the first competition in November.

In the second quarter, students will design and build their robot for competition, in the third quarter they will focus on competition preparation, and in the fourth quarter they will focus on more principles of engineering and robotics.

The number of students that will take the course next year was not available, but Fulton High School Principal Chris Tennyson said he would have a number for the board when the master schedule is made in the next month or so.

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Fulton High School to offer robotics class | Local News ... - Clinton Herald

ELMIRA, N.Y. (18 NEWS) - Notre Dame High School's Robotics team, The Electric Fire, won the Finger Lakes Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Rochester last weekend.

"We went there to go have some fun and we ended up winning so it was pretty intense," Electric Fire coach Robert Stanley said. "To be honest when I found out we won finals I laid down and cried for a couple minutes," junior Macie Barone said.

"It was like mind blowing my team was just like hugging and screaming and jumping like I don't think any of us could've said anything articulate at that point," senior Kayle Watson said. "We were just so excited."

Now the team is looking to raise money for the FIRST World's Robotics Competition in St. Louis next month.

"We had 49 teams we were competing against," Stanley said. "Now there's 1,400 teams that we're going to be looking at when we get to St. Louis."

The National Science Foundation found women comprise 50 percent of the U.S. workforce but just 29 percent of STEM workers. Being a part of the robotics team has inspired many of these young women to take interest in science, technology, engineering and math.

"It's really helped out because I've been thinking of maybe doing a STEM program," Barone said. "It's really just opened my eyes the whole world of engineering and mechanical stuff."

"There's a team sponsored by Corning actually where I'm going to college so I might mentor there or help out or just do something," senior Katie Bohart said.

It's even enabled some students to make connections.

"I made a lot of friends at the competition, people who don't even live here I am now connected with because of robotics," sophomore Aylash McCloe said.

"I just feel like they could come from somewhere really far away now because of robotics we're together and talking and friends and stuff," sophomore Jacqueline Chen said.

No matter what happens in Missouri, these students will cherish the experience. "To make it to worlds it's incredible I wouldn't trade it for anything," Barone said. "Just like have fun and enjoy being there cause that's really what it's about," Watson said. "It's going to be three or four days of intense competition but it should be pretty awesome," Stanley said.

Stanley said all teams and their members qualify to apply for about $50 million in college scholarships just for participating in FIRST Robotics Competitions. If you'd like to donate follow this link to the Go-Fund-Me-Page.

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Notre Dame Robotics Team Celebrates Victory, Starts Fundraising for Tournament - My Twin Tiers.com

Elementary school projects have come a long way since the days of paper mache volcanos.

These days, students from all around Cherokee County are taking science to a new level with robotics clubs, vying with other schools to see who has the best creation.

A couple of the schools that compete throughout the state are Greenwood and Heritage elementary schools, and both have earned their way to Vex Robotics World Competition in Louisville, Ky.

Mendy McKee, a fourth-grade math and science teacher at Heritage, said she's beyond proud of her students on the robotics team for making it to the world competition.

"They're really pumped up right now," she said. "The world competition takes money, though, so now they're in the business of asking sponsors within the community for support, and they're entering classrooms with their robot to talk to the kids more about the program."

The schools' robotics teams are formed through the Tahlequah Public Schools Boys & Girls Club, and require after-school participation.

Lori Freymuth of Greenwood Elementary said the program allows kids from all walks of life to get involved in an extracurricular activity.

"They're all different," she said. "We have kids who are severely autistic who cannot function in a normal classroom typically, and they bring something to the table. We had a little boy last year who was kicked out of four different schools for behavior. [He] came into our program and you could tell it was his niche. His scores in school went up and his behavior issues stopped, because he knew that he had somewhere he belonged and that he was valued."

The robotics clubs allow students to develop skills like critical thinking, project management and communication - all of which are required to help them become the next generation of innovators.

McKee said part of the goal is to get the students thinking creatively.

"They're realizing that it does take an outside-of-the-box thinker to create something," she said. "Learning isn't all cut and dry - A, B, C, D - right-or-wrong answers. We need some out-of-the-box thinkers and some who are willing to try things and make mistakes."

Aside from building a robot, the students have to learn how to design it, program it and present it.

"There's something for everyone," Freymuth said. "There's so many different avenues and they all have their niche."

While it teaches the students how to communicate to an audience for a presentation, it also shows them how to effectively communicate with one another.

Cayden Nix of Greenwood said the groups don't always see eye-to-eye on different portions of the projects.

"We had to sit down and talk about all of our ideas," he said. "When we listened to each other, that's when we started to understand each other a lot better than usual."

The robotics projects have had students working all year long, which involved countless hours of trial and error.

"This is probably our 20th design and counting," said Matt Talburt of Greenwood, holding his robot.

Both schools will test their robots on the world stage in Louisville, at the Kentucky Exposition Center, April 23 - 25.

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ROBOTICS RENDEZVOUS - Tahlequah Daily Press

Students from Cambria and Somerset counties came together a few years ago to form the Laurel Highlands Education and Robotics Team, Robotic Doges. Three years later, the group has wontwo state championships and, most recently, a super-regional championship.

Nowthe nine students, ranging from eighth-graders to seniors, are preparing for their first visit to the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri.

Michelle Lamkin, one of two coaches for the team,saidthat has been a goal since Day 1.

Whats been really exciting for me as a coach is to see how every year these students have expanded their skills, Lamkin said. Every year the kids have really increased their knowledge base.

At the East Super-Regional Championship in Scranton last weekend, the team competed against 72 othersin the Northeast from Virginia to Maine. While the local participants mayhave been considered underdogs, they walked away from the tournament with first place.

JuniorMatt Romesberg said the win was gratifying.

It was pretty exciting, hesaid. Especially when comparing to last year, we put so many more hours into the robot.

Romesberg said the groupworkedon its robot ina team members family garage in Hollsopple.

Lamkin said the effort put forth by the team is exactly what the founder of the FIRST Tech Challenge was hoping for when he launched the program.

Shecalled the program a well-rounded approach to learning how to conduct business, because the team not only works to create a robot, but also doestheir own fundraising, budgeting and marketing each season.

What you learn is more important than what you win, she said.

As the team preparesfor next months world championshipin St. Louis, membersare looking forward to a highly competitive week.

Robotic Dogeswill host a Dessert & Demo open house from6:30 to 9 p.m. April 1 at St. Davids Lutheran Church, 401 N. Main St., Davidsville to help raise money for its trip tothe world championship tournament. Donations to the team will help cover its travel expenses and lodging.

For more information on the Robotic Doges, visitftcteam8645.wix.com/roboticdoges.

Ronald Fisher is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @FisherSince_82.

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Robotics team aiming for world championship | News | tribdem.com - TribDem.com

St. Clair Middle School students Spencer Hack, left, Andrew Parr, Raine Caister, Quinn Schwarz and Mitchell Hack won a qualifying tournament for the Michigan Robofest Championships.(Photo: Bob Gross, Times Herald)Buy Photo

ST. CLAIR A Robofest team from St. Clair Middle School took first place in a Lego robotics competition March 18 at Baldwin Elementary School in Rochester.

"I've got eight different teams and one of the teams competed last Saturday and took a first place," said ScottP. Eisele, a technology teacher at St. Clair Middle School and St. Clair High School.

"They scored two perfect rounds."

A Robofest team at St. Clair Middle School won a qualifier for the state championship games. Bob Gross, Times Herald

The competition was a qualifier for the Michigan State Robofest Championship, May 13 at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield.

Members of the Saints 1 team that won at Rochester are Andrew Parr, 13, an eighth-grader;Raine Caister, 13, a seventh-grader; Quinn Schwarz, 13, an eighth-grader; Spencer Hack, 13, an eighth-grader; and Mitchell Hack, 12, a seventh-grader.

"I was pretty excited," Andrew said. "It was a smaller competition, probably one of our smallest competitions."

Raine said being in robotics requires teamwork: "You have to work together. If you don't work together, you'll never get done."

St. Clair MIddle School teacher Scott Eisele, right, works with Connor Lobeck, center, and Carter Sharrow on a robot programming issue.(Photo: Bob Gross, Times Herald)

Eisele said he has 31 studentsin the robotics program at St. Clair Middle School. The other seven teams will be competing April 22 at West Bloomfield High School. He also has seven students at the high school on two teams.

Students competing in Robofest build their robots from Legos and other materials. Unlike in other robotics competitions, there are no drivers each robotmust be autonomous and complete its task without input from team members beyond programming.

This year's game is based on baseball. Once it's switched on, the robot must clear a field of the bases and any debris, then smack a ball off a tee and over a wall.

Eisele said the students do the work and the students get the benefits.

"No. 1, they are learning to program, writing code for the robots," he said. "The robots have to run autonomously.

Andrew Parr tweaks his team's robot at St. Clair Middle School.(Photo: Bob Gross, Times Herald)

"They have to design the robot. Pretty much every team has different ideas on how they can solve the problems.

"And once the robot starts on the mission, you can't touch the robot," he said.

Students meet at the middle school before classes in the morning to work on their robots and tweak the programming. Eisele said because many of the robots use light sensors, even small variations can throw off their performance.

"It's fun and it's also challenging," said Connor Lobeck, who is 13 and a seventh-grader. "Sometimes your program doesn't want to work and you have to change a few things about it to get it to work."

St. Clair Middle School teacher Scott Eisele talks with Connor Lobeck about his robot.(Photo: Bob Gross, Time Herald)

Nick Murawski, 13 and a seventh-grader, said he likes the hands-on aspects of Robofest.

"I like it because it's interesting and it helps me understand parts of engineering," he said. "We have to build this robot ourselves with no instruction."

More:Students prepare for Robofest

Contact Bob Gross at (810) 989-6263 or rgross@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobertGross477

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St. Clair Middle School Robotics team wins state qualifier - Port Huron Times Herald

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Military, police forces, and other government agencies have used unmanned ground robots for many years to go into harsh environments that may be unsafe for humans. Unfortunately, many of these robots, while essential, have proven to be expensive and to have long-term reliability issues. To address this challenge, Realion Robotics was formed to deliver proven, reliable technology with greater value than has been offered by others to address evolving threats and the needs of military operators.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170321005293/en/

Realion Robotics is a joint venture that combines the expertise of Alion Science and Technology, a U.S.-based engineering and technology firm with an 80-year history supporting warfighters, and Reamda, Ltd. of Ireland, which brings decades of experience delivering unmanned ground robotic systems for use in the most difficult conditions.

Used to investigate threats, find and disarm explosive ordnance or perform lifting and carrying tasks, robots extend the reach of ground forces, explained Doug King, Program Manager, of Realion Robotics. While no one disputes the usefulness of military robots, the DoD has traditionally bought many more than they need, because they expect to see a lot of breakdowns in the field. So the cost of ownership can be very high. Realion Robotics is changing that value equation, King said. Out robots have been proven to be more reliable and capable than what many users have come to expect, and we can deliver them more affordably, as well.

Realion Robotics will be showcasing its robotics solutions at the NDIA Ground Robotics Capabilities Conference, March 21-23, 2017 in Springfield, Virginia, booth 307.

About Realion Robotics

Realion Robotics unites the extensive capabilities of two companies at the vanguard of defense engineering: Alion Science and Technology and Reamda, Ltd. of Ireland.

Alions agile engineering, systems integration and operational support expertise stems from an 80-year history supporting the most intensive needs of warfighters. Reamda has decades of robotics engineering and development experience, producing robotic systems used daily by EOD teams in Ireland and by other customers worldwide. For details about Realion Robotics extensive line of robotic systems, visit http://www.realionrobotics.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170321005293/en/

MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170321005293/en/

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Realion Robotics Introduces Reliable, Capable, High Value Robots for Military Use - Yahoo Finance

Over 800 leading scientists, companies, and policymakers working in robotics will convene at the European Robotics Forum(#ERF2017) in Edinburgh, 22-24 March. This years theme is Living and Working With Robots with a focus on applications in manufacturing, disaster relief, agriculture, healthcare, assistive living, education, and mining.

The 3-day programme features keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, and plenty of robots roaming the exhibit floor. Visitors may encounter a humanoid from Pal Robotics, a bartender robot from KUKA, Shadows human-like hands, or the latest state-of-the-art robots from European research. Success stories from Horizon 2020, the European Unions framework programme for research and innovation, and FP7 European projects will be on display.

DrCcile Huet Deputy Head of European Commission Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Unit, said, A set of EU projects will demonstrate the broad impact of the EU funding programme in robotics: from progress in foundational research in robot learning, to in touch sensing for a new dimension in intuitive Human-Robot cooperation, to inspection in theoil-and-gas industry, security, care, manufacturing for SMEs, or the vast applications enabled by the progress in drones autonomous navigation.

Reinhard Lafrenz, Secretary General of euRobotics said, A rise in sales in robotics is driving the industry forward, and its not just benefiting companies who sell robots, but also SMEs and larger industries that use robots to increase their productivity and adopt new ways of thinking about their business. Around 80 robotics start-ups were created last year in Europe, which is truly remarkable. At euRobotics, we nurture the robotics industry ecosystem in Europe; keep an eye out for the Tech Transfer award and the Entrepreneurship award well be giving out at ERF.

Projects presented will include:

The increased use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in robotics will be highlighted in two keynote presentations. Raia Hadsell, Senior Research Scientist at DeepMind will focus on deep learning, and strategies to make robots that can continuously learn and improve over time. Stan Boland, CEO of FiveAI, will talk about his companys aim to accelerate the arrival of fully autonomous vehicles.

Professor David Lane, ERF2017 General Chair and Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, said, Were delighted this year to have two invited keynotes of outstanding quality and relevance from the UK, representing both research and disruptive industrial application of robotics and artificial intelligence. EURobotics and its members are committed to the innovation that translates technology from research to new products and services. New industries are being created, with robotics providing the essential arms, legs and sensors that bring big data and artificial intelligence out of the laboratory and into the real world.

Throughout ERF2017, emphasis will be given to the impact of robots on society and the economy. Keith BrownMSP, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work,will open the event, said, The European Robotics Forum provides an opportunity for Scotland to showcase our world-leading research and expertise in robotics, artificial intelligence and human-robot interaction. This event will shine a light on some of the outstanding developments being pioneered and demonstrates Scotlands vital role in this globally significant area.

In discussing robots and society, Dr Patricia A. Vargas, ERF2017 General Chair and Director of the Robotics Laboratory at Heriot-Watt University, said, As robots gradually move to our homes and workplace, we must make sure they are fully ethical. A potential morality code for robots should include human responsibilities, and take into account how humans can interact with robots in a safe way. The European Robotics Forum is the ideal place to drive these discussions.

Ultimately, the forum aims to understand how robots can benefit small and medium-sized businesses, and how links between industry and academia can be improved to better exploit the strength of European robotics and AI research.As robots start leaving the lab to enter our home and work environments, it becomes increasingly important to understand how they will best work alongside human co-workers and users. Issues of policy, the law, and ethics will be debated during dedicated workshops.

Dr Katrin Lohan, General Chair and Deputy Director of the Robotics Laboratory at Heriot-Watt University said, It is important how to integrate robotics into the workflow so that it support and not disrupt the human workers. The potential of natural interaction interfaces and non-verbal communication cues needs to be further explored. The synergies of robots and human workers could make all the difference for small and medium-sized businesses to discuss this the European Robotics Forum is the ideal place as it joins industry and academia community.

______________________

Confirmed keynote speakers include: Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, Member of the Scottish Parliament Raia Hadsell, Senior Research Scientist at DeepMind Stan Boland, CEO of FiveAI

The full programme can be found here.

Dates: 22 24 March Venue: EICC, The Exchange, 150 Morrison St., EH3 8EE Edinburgh, Scotland Participants: 800+ participants expected Website: http://www.erf2017.eu/

Press Passes: Journalists may request free press badges, or support with interviews, by emailing publicity.chairs@erf2017.eu. Please see the website for additional information.

OrganisersThe European Robotics Forum is organised by euRobotics under SPARC, the Public-Private partnership for Robotics in Europe. This years conference is hosted by the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.

About euRobotics and SPARC euRobotics is a non-profit organisation based in Brussels with the objective to make robotics beneficial for Europes economy and society. With more than 250 member organisations, euRobotics also provides the European Robotics Community with a legal entity to engage in a public/private partnership with the European Commission, named SPARC.

SPARC, the public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Commission and euRobotics, is a European initiative to maintain and extend Europes leadership in civilian robotics. Its aim is to strategically position European robotics in the world thereby securing major benefits for the European economy and the society at large.

SPARC is the largest research and innovation programme in civilian robotics in the world, with 700 million euro in funding from the European Commission between 2014 to 2020, which is tripled by European industry to yield a total investment of 2.1 billion euro. SPARC will stimulate an ever more vibrant and effective robotics community that collaborates in the successful development of technical transfer and commercial exploitation.

http://www.eu-robotics.net http://www.eu-robotics.net/sparc

Press contact details:

Sabine Hauert, Robohub President Sabine.Hauert@robohub.org

OR

Kassie Perlongo, Managing Editor Kassie.Perlongo@robohub.org

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Living and working with robots: European Robotics Forum to focus on robotics markets and future of work - Robohub

Operation PEACCE Robotics

Operation PEACCE Robotics, of Bristol, with their robot Hailstorm.

Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017 10:41 pm | Updated: 10:53 pm, Mon Mar 20, 2017.

Robotics team awarded for community outreach

BRISTOL Operation PEACCE Robotics recently won the Engineering Inspiration Award when they brought their robot, Hailstorm, to a First Robotics competition in Massachusetts.

The award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a teams school and community.

In order to win this award, a team had to make significant strides in getting the First Robotics message out to the community by developing and running youth teams, engaging in community events and reaching out to the public, explained Elaine Pelizzari, team mentor. Our aggressive recruiting efforts and growth as a team seemed to win the judges over and our kids are enormously proud of their accomplishment. They are wearing their medals all over town.

Winning this award was overwhelming to be honest, said Carol Pelizzari, chief of sponsor relations and Elaine Pelizzaris daughter. It was the first time our team won an award related to something other than the robot.

The team reached out to the community at a variety of events last year in Hartford and Litchfield Counties, including the Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce Family Festival at Goshen Fair Grounds, the Rockwell Park Summer Festival Aug. 20 in Bristol, the Watertown Fall Festival at Veterans Memorial Park in Watertown Sept. 17, the Bristol Mum Festival Sept. 23 and 24 on Memorial Boulevard, the Harwinton Fair Sept. 30 through Oct. 20 and finally the Wild About Animals program at Imagine Nation Museum Oct. 29.

Operation PEACCEs robot for this years competition is named Hailstorm because it can rapidly fire balls that it picks up into a hopper as part of this years Steampunk (a retro-future science fiction genre and clothing style) themed robotics competition. The robot was also designed to be versatile, able to climb into a mock airship as another way to score points.

It is interesting to see the issues that teams faced at the competition, said Johnny Chea, another team member. It was a chance to see the importance of completing one task to get points over another. We actually found that shooting balls into the hopper wasnt as important so we had to scrap our aiming system to make the robot better at picking up gears. We will be given six hours to make adjustments to our robot before the next competition. With that, we will design a better climber.

The team, which includes 37 students from Bristol and the surrounding community, about 40 percent of which are home schooled, also redesigned their teams logo to include gears and a top hat with goggles to fit the Steampunk theme. Some of the students wear Steampunk themed costumes at the events, some of which include hand-made robot angel wings.

Its all about showing our team spirit, said Chea.

Brian M. Johnson can be reached at 860-973-1806 or bjohnson@bristolpress.com.

Posted in Bristol Press, News, Bristol on Monday, March 20, 2017 10:41 pm. Updated: 10:53 pm.

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Robotics team awarded for community outreach - Bristol Press

BEAST Robotics' robot will soon take to the field at the FIRST Robotics Wisconsin Regional competition this weekend.(Photo: Submitted)

Soon, 76 Elmbrook high school students will see the lights come on and the engine rev up on a six-week long project.

BEAST Robotics is set to be one of approximately 60 teams competing at the FIRST Robotics Wisconsin Regional Competition at the UWM Panther Arena this weekend.

The robotics season sees teams from around the world tasked with spending six weeks building a robot. That part of the process wrapped up in February and now the collaborationbetween Brookfield Central and Brookfield East high schools is in the midst of competition season.

"Every team starts the same day with the same challenge and at the end of six weeks you have to bag your robot, lock it up and you can't touch it," team adviser Richard Oakes said. "Competitions run from March into early April and then if you qualify at one of the regionals you get to go to the world championships in St. Louis."

BEAST has won its regional and been able to attend worlds two of the last three years.

FIRST Robotics' challenge for teams varies every year. This year, six robots from six different teams will take part in a 3 versus 3 team competition.

"The game completely changes, but it's always about manipulating a game piece. This year there's two airships that are supposed to be getting ready for flight and your robot delivers gears to the airships to get their motors running," Oakes said. "At the end your robot has to climb up a rope."

Oakes is one of 20 mentors involved with BEAST Robotics.

Interest in the robotics team has spiked in recent years. The program first started 11 years ago as a Brookfield East team, but also was opened up to students from Brookfield Central five years ago.

"When we first started we were probably 15 to 20 kids, but in the last few years we've seen some pretty significant growth," Oakes said.

While approximately two-thirds of students involved in BEAST help to either build the robot or program its software, the team is about much more.

"We have a business team that takes care of things like sponsorships, we've got social media people," Oakes said. "It's like a business in that sense. There's a marketing part, a business part and of course the building part."

Oakes, who works in computers, said he's constantly impressed with the students he gets to work with.

"It's kind of humbling because of what the students bring to the table, how hard they work, how much they know and how much they pour into it," Oakes said. "It's really cool to watch the students grow. A lot of them I have for four years and they go on to have amazing careers."

For more information on the team go tohttps://www.beastrobotics.com/.

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Brookfield robotics team prepares for regional competition - Brookfield-Elm Grove Now

A group of schoolchildren who won a robotics competitionwere subjected to a barrage of racist abuse from some rival pupils and their parents who shouted: Go back to Mexico.

It was the first time that pupils from Pleasant Run Elementary School had entered the robotics challenge. Their victory over the youngsters from other Indianapolis schools, put them a step closer to the state championship.

Yet as the children, aged nine and ten, left the event and walked out to the parking area, some of the children they had just beaten, along with their parents, unleashed racist comments.

They were pointing at us and saying that Oh my God, they are champions of the city all because they are Mexican. They are Mexican and they are ruining our country, Diocelina Herrera, the mother of student Angel Herrera-Sanchez, told the Indianapolis Star.

The incident in the parking area had reportedly been preceded by racist comments that were being whispered inside the gymnasium at Plainfield High School.

The team from Pleasant Run Elementary School, Indiana, included three youngsters who are Latino and two who are African American. The children in the other 20 teams taking part in February contest were largely white.

John Oliver makes fun of Donald Trump refusing to shake Angela Merkel's hand

For the most part, the robotics world is kind of a white world, said Lisa Hopper, the teams coach. Theyre just not used to seeing a team like our kids. And they see us and they think were not going to be competition. Then were in first place the whole day and they cant take it.

In the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump, teachers from schools across the country reported an increase in incidents of racist abuse. They said they children from immigrant families were often told to 'go home'.

Sabrina Kapp, director of communications for Plainfield Community School Corporation, said: We dont condone that behaviour; we dont tolerate it in our schools. We talk a lot about community values here. That is simply not something that anybody associated with Plainfield schools would put up with.

The newspaper reported that the children Pleasant Run Elementary School responded in the best way possible - by going on to win the prize for best robot design and engineering at the state championships. Their win means they are going to participate in the Vex IQ World Championship next month in Louisville, Kentucky.

They yelled out rude comments, and I think that they can talk all they want because at the end were still going to worlds, 10-year-old team leader Elijah Goodwin, told the newspaper.

Its not going to affect us at all. Im not surprised because Im used to this kind of behaviour. When you have a really good team, people will treat you this way. And we do have a pretty good team.

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'Go back to Mexico': Children who won elementary school robotics ... - The Independent