Student robotics team returns from worlds with stronger mind muscles – Boulder Daily Camera

Members of Team BroomBots robotics team work on a project while at the FIRST Robotics Competition, an international challenge, in Houston, Texas, on April 17. The team may not have won anything at the world championship, but they are the standing Colorado state champions, where they nabbed the state’s Inspire Award in Feb.. (Jamie Rumsey and Julian McCoy — Courtesy photo)

Students from a local robotics club — Team BroomBots — dove headfirst into the learning opportunity of a lifetime earlier this month while attending the international high school robotics competition in Houston, Texas.

In February, the team punched its ticket to the world competition in Texas after winning the top spot at the Colorado State Championship.

The FIRST Robotics Competition — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — is a nonprofit group that helps to prepare students for the future through science and technology. Well-known for its robotics competitions dubbed “the ultimate sport for the mind,” the group uses concepts such as coding to inspire students to become leaders, creative workers and scientists. The competition took place April 17-20 in Texas.

The BroomBots are a group of 12 students from schools across the city and county that come together in Broomfield’s Holy Comforter Episcopal Church anywhere from one to five times a week to work on their yearly robotics project for FIRST’s competition.

“Last year we went to state and had a really good time,” eighth-grader Tobin Rumsey said. “We didn’t win, but it was a really good learning opportunity for the whole team.”

Rumsey said that even though the BroomBots team is in its third season, the crew is still considered a new team.

“(At state) they called our name for the first place Inspire Award, which means we got basically the golden ticket to go to the worlds in Houston,” ninth-grader Julian McCoy said.

Rumsey added: “The Inspire Award is the highest award in the entirety of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition. The way to get considered for it is to be a top contender in all award categories … and that’s a very hefty challenge.”

The award categories focus on things like community impact, creativity and teamwork. By winning the Inspire Award, the BroomBots proved that the students are a well-rounded team deserving of a spot at the world championships.

“Our goal at worlds was to win one match — and to have fun,” ninth-grader Clare Martin said.

The team completed its goal early on, winning four matches throughout the competition. The matches involved a central game, where the robots had to place a series of plastic shapes on a backboard. With the help of the students driving, the robots lifted the pieces, detected the color, and then placed them in the

right location.

The team robot’s name is Zirka, which is Ukrainian for “star.” It was chosen to honor the Center Stage theme and the three Ukrainian students on the team, Artem Tymoshenko and Adelina Voskresenska in seventh grade and Nazar Tonkoshkur in 10th grade.

In addition to robotics skills like coding and hardware building, the programs also help set students up for success after graduation. By winning the Inspire Award and qualifying for the world championship, each student in the group earned a $35,000 scholarship to attend Regis University. Students also have the chance to meet engineers from NASA, the Department of Defense and other prestigious robotics institutions.

Even though the team didn’t win any awards at worlds, they all agreed that they learned important lessons from the experience, and are excited to try again next year. Sierra McCoy learned about professionalism, Adrea Sam solidified her decision to become an aerospace engineer and Tymonshenko learned that he should speak up and share his ideas.

The group is recruiting mentors to add more teams and welcome more kids to the program. More information can be found at broomfieldroboticsclub.org. Mentors help guide students through competitions and the many hours of work that goes into them, and will get to know the rest of the team, which also includes Patrick Martin, Sam Iros, Cata Fattor and Lexie Engel.