Local School’s Robotics Team Earns World Championship Bid

A local high school's robotics team has earned a spot at the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis later this month.

FIRST Robotics Competition Team 2914 from Woodrow Wilson High School was one of three teams in an alliance that earned top honors after three days of competition that concluded Saturday at the Washington Convention Center.

FIRST, an acronym of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, better known as the inventor of the Segway. The FIRST Robotics competition, held annually since 1992, gives high school students the opportunity to play engineer by designing their very own robot that can accomplish specific tasks.

The exact parameters of the game change every year, but each team is given six weeks to construct their machines. This year, the task was to design a basketball-playing robot to compete in a game called "Rebound Rumble." The format pitted two alliances of three teams each against each other. Each alliance's robots were given two minutes and 15 seconds to put basketballs in a series of hoops. Teams were given more points based on how high the hoop was.

Wilson High School was joined in competition by teams from Shrewsbury High School in Shrewsbury, Mass. and Upper Darby High School in Drexel Hill, Pa. The Wilson team, known as "Tiger Pride" is the first team from the District to win the D.C. Regional.

In all, 63 teams from ten states and D.C. competed in the event. The FIRST World Championship will be held from April 25 to April 28.

The full Wilson Robotics team is below: