43
Fitch Robotics to compete in world championships
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Fitch students will begin competing against teams from across the world Thursday in St. Louis, Mo. at a world robotics competition.
The Falco Tech FRC 3193 team, which began traveling today, is competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition Championships with five rounds Thursday and Friday while staying in a hotel in the St. Louis area, head coach Ric Zimmermann detailed. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
“We’ve always been so close, and this year our robot did an aspect” that was even better, Zimmermann said. “A lot of tears. A lot of jumping up and down [when we won]. People emailing local people, the parents and everything. It was pure pleasure.”
The team has been around for six years with Zimmermann at the helm and has varied from eight students, in the first year, to as many as 40-some two years ago. This year there are 27.
“It’s not often that an organization or a club or anything at all representing a high school has an opportunity to perform at such a prestigious level as this,” said Chris Berni, Fitch principal. “It’s bigger than winning the state championship in a sport.”
The team, however, “zeroed out its accounts” to be able to make the trip and is seeking donations to continue in competitions after the championships. The team has set up a gofundme page, www.gofundme.com/FitchRobotics, which as of Tuesday night had raised $1,690 over 22 days.
“It’d be nice to get more support. We hit 70-some businesses in the last three weeks, and we raised less than $3,000. We were lucky enough that Delphi gave us $5,000 and a private donor gave us $5,000,” Zimmermann explained of trip financing.
The group does many fundraisers, from candy bars to pepperoni rolls. Zimmermann said every year these raise about $23,000, with the first event costing $5,000 for walking in the door and getting some totes of miscellaneous parts to use on their robots. From there competitions are $4,000, and the championship trip was valued at $16,000.
Zimmermann is joined by Andy Yantes, who coaches computer programming and wiring, and Mike Mellott, who coaches design. They teach the students in the fall, and the specifications on what type of robot has to be built are released in January. This is on top of any Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics courses within the schools.
Zimmermann is encouraging his students to network as much as possible during the trip. Berni and the coach agreed jobs are shifting back to hands-on.
“Schools have been told by the marketplace that kids need 21st-century learning skills, and the reason is that the job that they’re competing for is in the global marketplace,” Berni said. “Our kids are going to have a great opportunity to see that in St. Louis because it’s a world championship.”
Other robotics teams from the Mahoning Valley that have qualified to compete in this weekend’s world championships include those from Girard, Hubbard and Warren Harding high schools.