By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

The Kentwood Public Schools Red Storm Robotics program has long been known as  having a model high school program at East Kentwood High School, both its students and the robots they build.

And after a 2020 of virtual events due the pandemic, the East Kentwood team will be back before crowds this school year as it hosts the Kentwood FIRST Robotics competition, scheduled for April 1-2, 2022, with a many as 40 teams expected to compete in a “Rapid React” game challenge that will be announced in January.

But the success of the high school program begins with the steady stream of talent moving up from the its middle school ranks, talent already on display before a large crowd as Kentwood Public School’s middle school robotics program sent five teams against others schools at the FIRST Tech Challenge Kentwood qualifier, hosted by Red Storm Robotics, on Nov. 6.

Getting back to live competition “means everything to these kids, we haven’t been able to do this for two years … we are just so excited for this event today,” Trista VanderVoord, who works with the Kentwood Public Schools Red Storm Robotics program, said to WKTV at the event.

And for the students, the event was not only a chance to see and be seen by their family and friends, it was a chance to match up their robotic creations up against others schools and other robots inventions.

“It is really exciting to be able to see a bunch of these other robots,” said Giselle Triggs, a member of Kentwood’s Green Team and who is in her first year of being part of the Red Storm Robotics program.

“Everybody is really cool, and everybody is giving complements,” Christian Posthumus, a member if the Grey team, said. “The only problem is that there are so many people watching you … It’s just scary. If you mess up, everybody will see you mess up.”

The Kentwood teams did not “mess up” much at the FIRST Tech Challenge, however, as two of the five teams qualified for a state competition in December.

Two teams move on to state competition

In results of the competition, as detailed on the Red Storm Robotics Facebook page after the challenge, Red Storm Red team qualified for the state competition and earned the 2nd place Control Award, the 3rd place Think Award, and the 3rd place Inspire Award (Inspire is the highest award in FIRST Tech Challenge). Red Storm White team will be joining the Red Team, as the “Bot Tart” crew won the 2nd place Motivate Award and the Connect Award.

Additionally, the Red Storm Green team “had a fun first competition” as the all-rookie 6th and 7th grade team were decked out in magician capes, top hats and magic wands.

 

Red Storm Gray was another all-rookie 6th and 7th grade team, members of which shared their team spirit by distributing a dozen handmade shark awards to other teams throughout our competition.

The Red Storm Blue placed 12th in the qualifier and also received the Promote Award for their video submission on “If I could tell my younger self one thing about FIRST Robotics, it would be…” as well as winning the Motivate Award.

Goals of FIRST Tech Challenge

The FIRST Tech Challenge is a national program of FIRST Inspires where “students learn to think like engineers,” according to program material. Teams design, build, and code robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Robots are built from a reusable platform, powered by Android technology, and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming.

This year’s tech challenge, Freight Frenzy, is presented by Raytheon Technologies and had students race against time to transport “essential goods and explore the future of transportation,” according to supplied material.

For more informant on the First Inspires program visit firstinspires.org/robotics.

For more information on the Read Storm Robotics program visit redstormrobotics.com.