Seymour High School sent robotics team members Noah Chambers, Micah Yee, Ethan Rubin, and Gabriel Seabolt to the Indiana State Robotics Championship on March 23rd at Lucas Oil Stadium. At the previous competition, they won two awards: Tournament Champion for going undefeated at a previous tournament and the Excellence award, which is the judges’ highest award. While at state, they were 2nd for a while but ultimately came in 8th place. They qualified for the first round of elimination rounds where they unfortunately lost 71-149.
Freshman Micah Yee shared that one of the major challenges they faced was questionable calling by the referee. Micah explained one of the questionable calls that happened in the tournament: ” In the challenge, you’re not supposed to tip other robots intentionally, and so in one of our matches our teammate got tipped, and in another, we got tipped and the ref decided not to call it saying that it was unintentional regular gameplay.” Another challenge they faced was that their robot disconnected in back-to-back matches, and when asked why it happened Noah said, “We do not know. It has never done that before, and it was happening to other robots at the tournament as well.”
Even though the team didn’t win, they still learned a lot from it. Micah said, “We learned, of course, technical things about the robot, but like in general one of the main things I learned is that our team has the potential to do great things, and if we keep up the good work and work as a team we can really be up there, and maybe win State in future years.”
Aside from learning about their potential, the team also discovered changes they could make to their new robot next year to help them be more successful. Micah stated, “One of the main problems we had was our center of gravity with our robot sometimes doing wheelies when we drove super fast, and so one of the main things we’re gonna change next year is to try to really lower the center of gravity, so we’re not flying around the field.” The team also plans on implementing new programming to the robot next year thanks to Noah Chambers learning C++.
The team has some pretty big goals for next year as Micah said, “I would say my goal for next year is to qualify for the world championship and make it to the dome which is the world’s final. Winning State would be cool, but that’s not a requirement.” The team also wishes to improve their ability to win skills awards next year. Micah explained, “We faced off against 5 of the strongest teams in the world and, of course, most of them have been doing this for a long time and spend a lot of time on it, and they have mastered the art of taking judge awards, and we have not. It’s our first year, but that’s one thing we’re gonna try to improve and practice a lot more in the upcoming months.”
The team overall said they had a good time at state and were able to learn a lot from the competition. Noah shared, “It was pretty fun. I mean we were there.” He also added, “It was an interesting and new experience, for me since I’m a first year, and I never did anything prior other than a few summer camps.” Mrs. Amy Miller, SMS teacher and the head coach of the robotics team, said, “We all could not be more proud of our Seymour Owls. The high school team battled with great integrity and made their alliance selection with calculated thought, team discussions, and ultimately top-notch character. The takeaway from this competition is that when you work hard you reap the benefits. It has been a blessing for Jamie Baker and me to be able to guide and encourage these students through this year’s challenge and we look forward to working with the students next year.”
