ORHS Robotics Team busy this spring

(Submitted) Oak Ridge High School’s Robotics Team, the Secret City Wildbots, will compete locally at the Smoky Mountains Regional FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium, March 31 – April 1, before heading to the World Championship Competition in Houston, Texas on April 18.

The Wildbots punched their ticket to the World Championship earlier this month after earning the Engineering Inspiration Award at the Arkansas FRC Regional, an award sponsored by NASA that celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.

Triceptasauraus, the Wildbot’s competition robot this year, weighs in at 118 pounds and is entirely designed, manufactured and programmed by students on the team. Having finished 8th overall in Arkansas, the team is excited to get Triceptasauraus back into competition next week. 

“We are a very young team,” said Wildbot lead mentor and teacher Mark Buckner. “We had six strong experienced senior leaders graduate last year, so this is a rebuilding year for us, but I couldn’t be more proud of this team and their hard work and performance so far this year.”

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18 (PreK-12).

To learn more about the Secret City Wildbots, visit their website or attend next week’s competition.

Also taking part in that competition will be Clinton High School’s “RoboDragons” robotics team.