Robotics Team Claims Design Award
By Tiffany chaney
The two Pierce robotics teams, Noggin Boppers and Gear Giggles Gang, were in O’Neill for a V5RC tournament on Saturday, January 25.
The highlight for the Noggin Boppers was receiving the Design Award, which recognizes an organized and professional approach to the engineering design process, project and time management, and team organization. The Design Award recognizes a team's ability to document and explain their engineering design process via an engineering notebook and team interview. This is the first time a Pierce robotics team has won this prestigious award.
Team 71414A, Noggin Boppers, consists of Tiffany Chaney, Andrew Lienemann, and Makayla Shefl.
The team finished 5-3 in qualifying matches to rank eighth and were selected by the fifth seed, OPS - Unknown Variable, for the tournament. The pair was seeded third in the tournament. The combination proved powerful and dominated their quarterfinal match, 35-0, and then lost in the semifinals to the eventual champions for the third tournament in a row.
Lienemann, the driver, kept the match close until the final moments when the opposition descored a mobile goal full of points. Team programmer, Shefl, increased the autonomous half of skills to finish fifth in the robot skills portion of the event.
“I thought we had a great day. We ended sixth in skills with a 46. We won the design award and made it to the semifinals losing to the eventual winners,” Shefl said. “We won 5-3 in qualification rounds, ranking us eighth. We were picked by third ranked 1064x OPS-Unknown Variable making the third seed alliance and winning us bye in the tournament. Overall the robot performed pretty well.” Team A had a great day and cannot wait for the next competition.
Pierce’s other team, 71414G, Gear Giggles Gang, consists of Kohin Eichberger, Nicholas Fisher, and Layne Prince.
The team finished 4-4 in qualifying rounds for a 14th rank. They selected the 16th-ranked We Have No Clue team from O'Neill as their partner. The team lost a tough match in the quarter-finals, 47-6. One of the highlights of the day for the Gear Giggles Gang was a last-second score by the team’s driver, Prince, to win the match.
The next action for 71414A Noggin Boppers will be Saturday, February 1, at a huge, competitive tournament hosted by the UNL Robotics team at the UNL Engineering Center. Both teams will travel to Grand Island the following Saturday.
