Dublin High School Hosts FIRST LEGO League Robotics Competition Sun Nov 13

Dublin High School Robotics Club

Dublin High School’s Robotics Club (one of over 50 extracurricular clubs at Dublin High) is off to a fast start in the 2011-12 competitive robotics season. This Sunday November 13, the Dublin High Robotics Club will be hosting a FIRST LEGO League robotics competition for elementary and middle school students. Members of the community are welcome to attend and cheer on the competitors (details at the bottom of this article).

Last weekend Dublin High Robotics participated in two Bay Area events – the Vex Robotics Competition held at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek on Saturday November 5 and the Bay Area Science Festival at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Sunday November 6 (students from Dublin High’s Engineering Academy also supported the event).

Dublin High Student Volunteer - Bay Area Science Festival

Dublin High’s participation at the Bay Area Science Fair, which attracted over 21,000 attendees, was in coordination with Chevron (a sponsor of Dublin High’s Engineering Academy) and Project Lead the Way, as part of the Chevron Exploration Village. Dublin High’s table included a competition robot demonstration as well as a paper airplane design activity. In preparation for the event, Dublin High students created paper airplane templates and a science fair style overview of basic aerospace engineering concepts – lift, drag, airfoil, etc. Dublin High Robotics Club President, sophomore Josh Price, “I enjoyed teaching kids about how to make an efficient airplane and what makes a good airplane work. It was fun to work with, and inspire, the scientists and engineers of the future.”

Dublin High School Robotics Club in Action

Three Dublin High Robotics Club teams were represented at the Vex Robotics Competition in Walnut Creek last Saturday. Josh Price, “Northgate could not have been a better first event for our new members. Even though our original design didn’t work, our altered design that we built on the spot was simple yet effective; it could score more points than the average team. All of the members had the time of their life winning round after round in the playoffs, defeating award-winning and world champion teams. The team unity and enthusiasm was contagious; we made the best of a bad beginning, and that led to a terrific ending. Go Dublin High Robotics!”

Dublin High Engineering Academy teacher Eugene Chou, “At the end of 34 qualifying rounds, our teams were ranked in the top 15 out of 27 teams. Our D-team was then chosen to be part of the 4th ranked alliance for elimination rounds. Our entire club rallied together to help our D-team support their alliance by adding an autonomous program five minutes before matches began! Our alliance went on to beat the 5th ranked team in quarterfinals to move onto the semi-finals with Evan Cornelius (rookie member this year) scoring an impressive 8 points in a single-round. In the semi-finals, we continued to advance after playing three grueling matches against the 1st ranked alliance, consisting of 2 world champion teams. With a couple of technical problems in the field during our final matches, we lost to the 2nd ranked alliance after two matches.”

In addition to hosting the FIRST LEGO League competition this Sunday, the Dublin High Robotics Club competes in Tracy this Saturday.

FIRST LEGO League Schedule – Sunday November 13

FIRST LEGO League Competition Location