The Gunn Robotics team (GRT) participated at the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) competition, winning awards at both the regional and national levels.

At the Silicon Valley Regional held from March 16 to 18, GRT won the Xerox Creativity award, the Woody Flower’s award, which is given to a teacher or adviser of the team, and the prestigious Chairman’s award, which is awarded to the team that best embodies the purpose and goal of FIRST. At the National Championship Event held at the George Dome in Atlanta, Georgia from April 27 to 29, the animation team won the Autodesk Visualization Grand Prize.

For this year’s robotics competition, students had to design a robot to play a game. This year’s game for robotics, called “Aim High,” was a three-on-three game where teams used their robots to push or shoot balls through goals on a rectangular field. At each side of the field was a ramp with two rectangular goals at the corners and an elevated hoop.

Teams were awarded three points for each ball launched through the hoop and one point for a ball scored in a side goal.

Teams were also awarded points for parking robots on their ramp at the end of the game—five points for one robot, 10 for two robots and 25 for three robots.

For this year’s animation competition, students had to create an animation in response to a prompt. This year’s prompt was “Ideas Realized—The process of visualizing what you hope to achieve by being part of FIRST.”

Senior Daniela Buchman was pleased with the robotics team’s performance at regionals. “We did well [at regionals], [our robot] made semifinals,” Buchman said. “We lost to this year’s and previous year’s winners.”

However, despite its success at the regional level, the team did not reach the semifinals at the national level. “We had some bad alliance partners,” Buchman said. “But we were enough of a threat for other teams to focus on us during the [beginning of the match].”

Senior animation team leader Isaac Wilson was also pleased with his team’s work, an animation of a pencil drawing transforming into the steel beam of a house and ending with a red wagon blasting off into space.

“The video was a red wagon, the kind you rode when you were five years old and then rockets popped out,” Wilson said. “It’s every kid’s dream.”

GRT adviser Bill Dunbar is proud of his students’ work. “Their robot was really good,” Dunbar said. “It was fast and reliable, and it is a beautiful machine. The animation was the best student-produced computer animation in the United States.”

Buchman considers the season a success. “I am thrilled with the team and we had a great year,” Buchman said.