Robotics competition draws teams from across the region

Hundreds of high school students, parents and mentors gathered from across the region Saturday, March 25, for the 2017 Smoky Mountain Regional Robotics Competition at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Teams began arriving Wednesday for the competition, which is one of dozens across the country that have taken place since the beginning of March. Teams from Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and West Virginia traveled to compete in the event and possibly advancing to the 2017 FIRST Robotics Championship in Houston.

According to FIRST Regional Director, L.J. Robinson, who brought the event to Knoxville in 2010, 15 teams from the Knoxville area competed in the 48-team event, including the Farragut High School Flagship team, which earned the opportunity to compete in the championship in April.

The event began with several practice matches Thursday and Friday, in which teams were able to test their machines’ ability to complete the tasks required to compete. The final competition came down to two alliances of three teams who were competing for the chance to go to Houston. The red alliance consisted of the Delphi E.L.I.T.E. team from Warren, Ohio, Shark Attack from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the Farragut High School Flagship team from Knoxville. After two tense final rounds, the red alliance defeated the opposing blue alliance, which featured the SigmaC@T Robotic Team from Fort Lauderdale, Category 5 from North Charleston, South Carolina, and the Secret City Wildbots from Oak Ridge.

Robinson explained that the annual competition serves an opportunity to introduce high school students to engineering concepts and to help them build relationships with mentors.

“It’s a wonderful cycle,” she said. “These children are mentored by professional engineers from the industry or professors from here at UT. When they go to college they become the interns of these industries and when they graduate these industries have already captured their future engineers and scientists.”

She added that the program gives former students the opportunity to give back to their schools as mentors and team coaches.

“That’s one of the interesting things about this program, these kids are being mentored therefore they learn mentoring,” she said. “Then they turn around and give back to the team when they graduate. It’s so much more than the robots.

“They’re learning about giving.”

Mark Wehrenberg, who has been involved in the Smoky Mountain Regional Robotics Competition since its inception, served as the judge advisor at this year’s competition. He added that the event helps area schools and industries interest the students in STEM careers.

“The environment that we create here helps the K-12 students to understand that there’s more to it than just math,” he said. “There’s teambuilding and problem solving and so much competition that is involved. It truly fills a need in the future by starting the program when they’re young.”

For Robinson, who works as the executive director of Manorhouse Assisted Living in Knoxville, bringing a regional competition to Knoxville was less about the robots and more about doing something good for the community.

“I don’t know the first thing about engineering or technology,” she said, “but I know a good thing when I see it, and this is a good thing.”