{"id":70157,"date":"2021-04-28T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/wired-to-winrobotics-team-earn-awards-in-state-contest\/"},"modified":"2021-04-29T15:01:11","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T23:01:11","slug":"wired-to-winrobotics-team-earn-awards-in-state-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/wired-to-winrobotics-team-earn-awards-in-state-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Wired to win:Robotics teams earn awards in state contest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

Hailee Cunningham had a goal heading into the robotics season. And it was a big one.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Thunder Mountain High School junior and member of the Chain Reaction robotics team wanted her team to win the top award in the Alaska State Robotics Competition. <\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“This year, I was like, I’m going to go all the way,” Cunningham said in a Zoom interview that included other robotics students and coaches. “I really, really tried to push my whole team. That was a huge goal.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Cunningham and her teammates were recently able to accomplish that goal. Chain Reaction earned the Inspire Award on April 17, claiming the top spot in a field of 27 teams. The team, one of four TMHS robotics teams, includes captains Keelan Cunningham and John Barnhill, both seniors; senior Remi Wiley; freshman Areo Meoli; junior Corrine Rather; and freshman Connor Greene. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"TMHS<\/a>

TMHS robotics team chain reaction pose together. The team, which consists of Keelan Cunningham and John Barnhill, both seniors; senior Remi Wiley; junior Hailee Cunningham; freshman Areo Meoli; junior Corrine Rather; and freshman Connor Greene; recently took top honors in the state robotics competition. (Courtesy Photo \/ Carol May)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Keelan Cunningham said that heading into the competition, which challenged teams to design a robot capable of firing rings and knocking down towers, was a fully functioning pivot design.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“We used that to a pretty decent extent throughout the competition,” Keelan Cunninham said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Wiley said the robot used a camera and software to sense a picture near the goal. A recursive algorithm helped the robot determine the angle and power needed to shoot a projectile through a hoop, Wiley said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

By winning the Inspire Award, Chain Reaction qualifies them for national\/world championships.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

However, in light of the ongoing pandemic, it is unclear when, where or even if the next level of competition will take place.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Chain Reaction wasn’t the only Juneau high school robotics team to earn awards in the competition.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Genetic Advantage, also a TMHS team, was awarded the Motivate Award. The award recognizes outreach efforts. Team member Grace Stewart mentored local Girl Scouts, and said the team held multiple outreach events.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"TMHS<\/a>

TMHS robotics team Genetic Advantage pose with a robot and team mascot Jacque Linguini. (Courtesy Photo \/ Carol May)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé’s team B.I.G. earned the Collins Aerospace Innovate Award, which recognizes creativity and inventiveness.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“We just put as much as we could toward developing our program this year,” said B.I.G. team member Adrian Whitney in a Zoom interview.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

[Meet the high schoolers competing for best robot<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

All students and coaches interviewed said that this year’s competition was a departure from past competitions. In light of the pandemic, teams did not meet at a central, spectator-filled location.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“It was a singular mat in a cramped, small space,” Whitney said. “No other mats, no other teams.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

However, members of Juneau’s award-winning robotics teams are already looking ahead to the next season —especially in light of rosters that include some particularly quick learners.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

This past season was a first for Stewart, who moved to Juneau from Metlakatla. It was also a first robotics season for Bjorn St. Clair, a team member of B.I.G.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I cannot say how smart and talented and good he’s gotten,” Whitney said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Both schools’ robotics programs hope to add similar minds to their ranks next season. Both programs intend to start up again in September.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TMHS team took top honors but weren’t the only winners. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":70158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-70157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-sports","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70157"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=70157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}