Summer Robotics
The last thing on the minds of most students is going back to school, but that is exactly what Texas Torque will do on Tuesday, June 4, from 3 to Continue Reading →
China Trip- July 2018
Texas Torque went abroad from July 20th through the 29th to participate in 2018 Chinese Robotics Challenge. At the competition, Texas Torque represented the United States by advancing to the semifinals as a part of the third seed alliance. Alongside Beijing-based teams 7095 HiMach and 5449 Prototype, Texas Torque showed off their 2018 robot Armageddon. Team 1477 mentor, Matt Davies, performed as Master of Ceremonies for the competition, bringing his southern charm to the opposite side of the globe. After the tournament concluded, event organizers took foreign teams on a tour of local areas around the South China Sea.
The team representatives also participated in cultural events. During the China exchange activity, Texas Torque took a fourteen-hour bullet train ride to Zhengjiang to meet team 6304 EAGLE and visit their facility. After the tour, Texas Torque revisited its past by competing with soccer robots against EAGLE. Other activities included learning from experts in paper cutting, modeling clay, and Chinese knot making. When some members of the team fell sick, EAGLE generously covered the hospital bills. The team representatives visited Cultural History museums where they put their hands into fermented foods, ate specialty noodles, and viewed culturally significant artifacts. The final stretch of the trip involved Torque visiting the village of Zhen and a nearby Buddhist temple.
The team members that went on this once-in-a-lifetime trip received cultural and robotics knowledge, as well as developed international friendships. Texas Torque is extremely grateful for the opportunity to represent the United States given by Team EAGLE and hope for future cooperation.
2018 FIRST Houston World Championship
Texas Torque’s last official event of the 2018 season was the Houston World Championship (our 8th consecutive World Championship) after triple qualifying at Lone Star Central (Regional Winners, Engineering Inspiration) and South Florida Regional (Chairman’s Award). The World Championship was held in George R. Brown Convention Center and Minute Maid Park, both held in our area, Houston, brought over 400 teams to Houston.
Texas Torque played on the Carver field, competing against 67 other teams for a spot on Einstein. After tough qualification matches, Texas Torque ended at the 47th position, with 4-6-0 record. Although the ranking was lower than anticipated, the robot performed well by continuously being the robot by being one of the robot that placed the most cubes. We were picked by team 5026 Iron Panthers, and together we picked team 108 SigmaC@T and team 1622 Spyder; together the teams formed the seventh seeded alliance. During the playoffs, our alliance was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Congratulations to Carver division alliance on the World Championship finalists! We would also like to congratulate our friends 2468 Team Appreciate for their Hall of Fame Finalists, and team 148 Robowranglers for winning the Houston World Championship! We would also like to congratulate team 1311 Kell Robotics for their induction into the Hall of Fame.
We’re thankful to have enjoyed a successful and action-packed 2018 season, but the action hasn’t ended yet — we’ll be facing the boss this may at the Texas UIL State Championships!
2018 Repsol Student Awards
On Thursday, April 12, Texas Torque was invited to attend the Repsol Student Awards, an event created by Repsol to recognize students who placed first in any local STEM related school district competition.
We demonstrated our 2018 robot “Bravo”, a version of our bagged competition robot, which we built for drive team practice in our lab. Although the stage space was too small to fully use and extend our robotic arm, we were able to invite NASA Astronaut Dr. Anna Lee Fisher to drive “Bravo” around the stage.
At the event, Texas Torque members had the opportunity to speak with Dr. John Charles, a NASA researcher and head scientist, Dr. Anna Lee Fisher, a NASA Astronaut and Medical doctor, the president of Repsol, and our school district’s remarkable superintendent Dr. Don Stockton. Both Dr. Charles and Dr. Fisher were kind enough to sign Bravo’s blue bumpers after taking group photos.
A high-achieving local FLL team 983 had also been invited to the Repsol Student Award ceremony, and the FLL team presented their own homemade video showcasing their achievements, much like an FRC Chairman’s Award video.
Texas Torque was honored to attend the event and we were happy to present our accomplishments to our local business community, from parents, to small business owners, to major corporations.
2018 South Florida Regional
This past weekend, the students, and mentors of Texas Torque traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida, to compete for our week 5 competition, South Florida Regional. Texas Torque competed in 10 hard fought qualification matches, which resulted us in the rank 34 position. By gracious decisions of the alliance captain 1251, Tech-Tiger Robotics, and their first pick 1902, Exploding Bacon, we were able to join their alliance to compete as the 7th seed alliance.
After 3 hard fought quarter-final matches, we were able to advance to semi finals, where we have been knocked off by the 6th seed alliance, team 1744, 2383, and 3164. Although some issues came along, the drive team did the best they could do to win the match. Congratulations on regional finalists to the 6th seed alliance, and the 1st seed alliance, 179, 180, and 1369 for their regional win.
Good news for the team came along during the awards ceremony, when Texas Torque was selected as the Chairman’s Award winner! This is our 4th Chairman’s Award in five years, which continues the three-year streak of winning Chairman’s Award. You can watch our 2018 Chairman’s Video here.
In two weeks, Texas Torque will be competing in the 2018 Houston FIRST Championship. As we prepare for the event, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or The Blue Alliance for updates on our progress.
2018 Lone Star Central Regional
This past weekend, the students, mentors, and parents of Texas Torque gathered at the Strake Jesuit school in downtown Houston for the 2018 Lone Star Central Regional. Armageddon, our 2018 robot, performed consistently well in qualification matches and earned us a spot as captains of the first-seed alliance. We teamed up with team 4587 Jersey Voltage, the second seed, and team 6377 the Howdy Bots.
Throughout elimination matches, we performed well, demonstrating coordinated autonomous modes and skilled cooperation. With the help of our alliance partners, we emerged undefeated and with the regional win. This is the second year in a row our team has won the Lone Star Central Regional, and we couldn’t have done it without our supportive mentors and parents!
During the awards ceremony, we made quite a few trips down to the field to collect our awards: on top of being Regional Winners, our team won the Safety Award, as well as Engineering Inspiration for our outreach efforts. We were also thrilled when Jackson Schilling, our Mechanical Lead and Sponsorship Liaison, won Dean’s List! He is our team’s FIRST Dean’s List Finalist, and we are so proud of everything he has done for the team.
Texas Torque would like to thank our amazing alliance partners 4587 Jersey Voltage and 6377 Howdy Bots for a great run in the Lone Star Central Regional. We’d also like to congratulate the finalist alliance, including team 5417 Eagle Robotics, the Regional Chairman’s Winners.
Our team will be competing in the South Florida Regional next week! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or The Blue Alliance for updates on our progress.
2018 Dallas Regional
From March 1st to 4th, Texas Torque traveled to Dallas to compete at the annual Dallas Regional. After a long bus ride from our home in The Woodlands, the team rested up to prepare for practice day on Friday. We also made final changes to the robot and practiced before the competition, which took place on Saturday and Sunday.
With our robot’s autonomous mode working smoothly as programmed, we were able to place a cube on the scale for our alliance, creating a early boost in score. Some issues with the arm came along during the regional, but we were able to fix them after each match. Though we played some hard matches, we were able to quickly cycle cubes to the exchange station and deliver nine cubes in under a minute. This rapid exchange made us one of the most efficient cycling robots at the event.
We were then invited to join team 5889 on the seventh-seeded alliance, after which we selected team 6655 to complete our alliance. The quarterfinal matches were against one of the top contenders, and the results were hard fought lost on both matches to knock us out.
Texas Torque won the Entrepreneurship Award. We congratulate team 148 and their partners teams 118 and 2789 for winning the regional! We’d also like to commend team 1296 on their Regional Chairman’s Award win.
