Lakeview students skilled in robotics – Battle Creek Enquirer

Lakeview High School's Q Branch Robotics team (wearing the team color pink T-shirts) is competing this week for a chance to advance to a world championship contest in St. Louis.(Photo: Courtesy photo/Bernhard Kerschbaum)

A teamof Lakeview High School students who can design, build and control robots remotelywill represent the Battle Creek area this week in a robotics competition in Saginaw.

Twenty-two members of the Q Branch Robotics team will compete against 39 other squadsin the Dow Division of the FIRST in Michigan District Championship, the robotics version of a state tournament, from Thursday to Saturday at Saginaw Valley State University. A total of 160 teams are competing for 82 slots up for grabs tothe World Championship competitionin St. Louison April 26-29.

"My team is very strong, talented students," said coach John Burdette, an AP physics, physics, astronomy and algebra teacher. "They've worked so hard all year and I've got a very senior-led team and I'm very proud of these students."

FIRST, short for For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is a New Hampshire-based organization that organizes robotic competitions around the world.

The Spartans named their team after the Q Branch division of MI6, theBritish spy agency in the James Bond movies.

Therobot they designed and built oversix weeks, Spectre, is named after a villainous organizationin the Bond movies.Spectre can grab, toss, run and climb on command.

Q Branch finished first in the Lakeview Districtcontest on March 3-4 and fifth in a March 17-18 competition at Gull Lake High School.

The students on the team average at least a 3.0 grade-point average and specialize in building robots, computer coding, robot design and business.

Q Branch Roboticsis made up of Ben Berrios, Serena Brondolo, Patrick Caratinni, Aubre Carey, Alayna Carr, Caleb Dunlap, Josh Dunlap, Rebekah Ehart, Elizabeth Espinoza, Elonne Gibson, Brialy Goodale, Dominik Kerschbaum, Bowen Kincaid, Jakob Kinnisten, Bao Le, Logan Mattingly, John Mead, Noah Miller, Kien Nguyen, Alayna Robinson, Joanna Robinson, Trevor Sanchez and Brianna Zuke.

Musashi Auto Parts, Denso Manufacturing Michigan Inc., Battle Creek Unlimited, IAC Group and Geislinger Corp. are sponsoring the team.

Forscores and match information, visit https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/4327/2017.

Contact Battle Creek Enquirer education reporter Noe Hernandez at 269-966-0684 or nhernandez@battlecreekenquirer.com.

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Lakeview students skilled in robotics - Battle Creek Enquirer