Rockwall-Heath Black Hawk Robotics places second at World Championship

(HEATH, TX — May 11, 2017) The Rockwall-Heath High School robotics team, Black Hawk Robotics, recently competed at FIRST Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri. Over 400 teams from around the world competed at this event. The Black Hawks won their 68-team division, advancing to the “Einstein” finals round-robin tournament against the winning alliances from the other 5 divisions. The Black Hawks ultimately advanced to the finals championship match where they finished three points short, losing 546-543 in the final match. In addition to their performance on the field, the team was also awarded the “Quality” award by the judges for the outstanding engineering of their robot.

Over 3,500 high school teams from 49 states and 24 countries competed in this seasons game. During the season, there were over 150 regional and state tournaments where teams could qualify for the World Championship. The Black Hawks qualified for the World Championship by winning the Rock City Regional in Little Rock, Arkansas. Later in the season, the Black Hawks also won the Brazos Regional in Waco, Texas.

This year’s game required a robot that can shoot plastic balls into high and low goals, place gears to activate rotors and climb a rope to an airship control center. Starting in January, the Rockwall-Heath students had six weeks to design and build a machine that effectively addressed the game challenge. Initially, the students designed the robot to quickly retrieve and score gears and to score some plastic balls. Over the course the season, the students refined their robot design, tested prototypes and manufactured new parts to improve the robot ball scoring sub system. By the completion of the St. Louis Championship, the Black Hawks had one of the top ball scoring robots in the world.

Leslie Reese, team coach and RISD teacher was reminiscent about the success of this year’s team. “We started the Rockwall-Heath robotics team in 2010 with just a few students. We did not have a lot of resources so we built a simple robot and only competed at the local Dallas regional. But because of the support of the school administration, community businesses, parents and most important, the students, our program has grown every year. We have had increasing success every season and this season has been the culmination of eight years of hard work. Very few robotics teams ever advance to Einstein elimination rounds and even fewer teams make it to the World Championship finals match. So, our performance this season is very special and has brought recognition to Rockwall-Heath from other robotics programs all over the world.”

The Black Hawks will finish their season by competing May 19-20 at the Texas UIL Robotics State Championship in Austin.

Submitted press release.

Our monthly print edition is delivered free to 19,000+ homes in Rockwall and Heath, TX.