A local high school robotics team is preparing for next season after competing in two offseason tournaments.
Team 4926, also known as GalacTech, is located in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and New Hampshire.
Members of GalacTech also competed at IndyRAGE (Raising Awareness of Girls in Engineering) on October 21st. The event, held at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis, focuses on promoting women in STEM fields.
Sam Geckler, president of Columbus Robotics and founder of Team 4926, said this type of event is an opportunity for students to step into a different role.
“As we often say, the view from behind the glass is very different than the view from the pit or the stands,” he said. “And these types of events are going to give a lot of other students that opportunity. And what I want to see is that just like regular season events, these events have their ups and downs. There will be failures and successes, so all of the mentors on the team also had the opportunity to observe how the students dealt with these challenges.”
GalacTech ranked ninth in the Boiler Bot Battle qualifying match and captained the sixth-seeded coalition in the event’s playoffs, teaming up with Carmel’s RoboBlazers and Champaign, Illinois’ Ctrl-Z.
Although their alliance didn’t win, Goekler said the Robo Blazers were part of the alliance that won the 2023 state championship, and Ctrl-Z was part of the winning alliance, so this probably means “This “It was the greatest alliance choice I’ve ever made.” 2023 International First Championship for FRC.
The students then headed to IndyRAGE the following weekend.
“Our goal is to get as many women involved as possible, which is why we are looking for women to be part of the drive team,” Goekler said. “…we recruited four women from our team. We actually had a little bit less women participating compared to previous years. But three of them were from our high school FRC team, and we actually One junior high school student from the FIRST Tech Challenge team also participated. We also had a few male students participate. Overall, it was a relatively small group.”
GalacTech was part of an eighth-seeded coalition in the IndyRAGE playoffs, but Goekler said they didn’t win that tournament either.
Still, he was pleased with his students’ performance in both tournaments.
“I wasn’t particularly happy with the robot because it was getting a little tired and it wasn’t the best robot ever, but I felt the students did a great job,” he said. Ta.
During the 2023 season, GalacTech advanced to the state championship but did not qualify to advance to the International FIRST Championship.
Both IndyRAGE and Boiler Bot Battle recreated the 2023 FRC challenge “Charged Up.”
The game, brought to you by the Gene Haas Foundation, involves moving cubes and cones into an area called the “grid” so teams can earn points and “recharge the community,” according to FIRST’s instructional video. It is stated in Teams also earn points by moving the robot onto a flailing platform known as a “charge station.”
With the competition over, Goekler said the team is preparing for 2024. This includes conducting his computer-aided design training sessions, building new practice chassis, cleaning the workshop, adding new tools, and teaching him how to use these items.
The team also participates in outreach events such as Bartholomew Unified School Corporation’s recent Girl Up! night.
The next season of GalacTech will officially begin in January with the release of the new FRC game.
According to FIRST, “In CRESCENDO, presented by Haas, a new challenge debuting on January 6, 2024, FIRST Robotics Competition teams will use their engineering skills and creativity to entertain and move the world.”
“We are all excited to finish our current assignments,” Goekler said. “And of course we don’t know what’s going to happen next. So the speculation begins.”
He added that the team plans to host a tournament at Columbus East High School in March.
He said Columbus Robotics is always recruiting new students and coaches for middle school and high school teams.
About team 4926
Team 4926 (GalacTech) is Columbus Robotics’ first robotics competition team.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. high school students in grades 9-12 who are interested in STEM programs are encouraged to join the team.
FIRST introduced the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) in 1992. The FRC announces new challenges each year at the January kick-off. High school students work with professional mentors to solve engineering design problems, then collaborate with other teams to play games in competitive events, and are also judged on design, innovation, and culture-changing behavior.
For more information about local teams, visit facebook.com/Team4926/ and Team4926.org. If you are interested in joining the team at Columbus Robotics, please send us an email. [email protected] For more information.