Protect This House

The MHS Robotics team hosted its very first event at Milford High School on March 16-17.

Milford has hosted LEGO team events before, but this was its first ever high school robotics competition. Many of the team members were very excited about this historic event.

“It’s cool to have it [at MHS] because I can show all of my friends what robotics is all about,” said Senior Rowan Marchie.

Other team members agreed with Marchie. “It’s cool being able to play in our home territory,” said Senior Noah Gould.

Robotics helps students learn how to use modern-day technologies. At the beginning of their season, the teams are given a specific task that their robot has to be able to do, and then for the next six months, they build a robot that is  able to do what was required.

This year’s task was to build a robot that could move around and pick up cubes. In the competition, the robots have to pick up as many blocks as they can in a limited amount of time and put them on a scale.

The event was a huge success, with 40 teams from across the state of Michigan competing.

“It just shows how robotics is growing,” said Junior Brien Smith. “It is very cool to see just how many people are invested in it.”

The HOT team was very successful, winning 7 of 9 matches on Friday and 2 of the 3 qualifiers on Saturday.

“During qualifiers, the HOT team showed off their driving and operating capabilities by successfully taking control of the switch or scale during their autonomous phase and keeping this control throughout their match play,” said Coach Lori Gleason in a press release.

Aside from their robot performing well, HOT team members also impressed by helping other programs with mechanical and program issues.

After excelling in the qualifying rounds the team joined other teams for a finals round. Milford ended up in second after teaming up with Notre Dame Prep and U of D Jesuit.

Though all of the team members wanted to get the overall victory,  many were still happy with their position at the end of the tournament.

“Even though we got second place, we moved up to ninth worldwide,” said Junior Michael Caradonna, “so that was a positive.”

Gleason was proud of the team for their performance, though she said it was tough to finish in second place.

“We obviously wanted to get that win on our home court,” she said. “But it shows how many good teams were competing at this event.”

The HOT Team will compete in Troy on March 30-31. They will then move on to the States Competition from April 12-14 at Saginaw Valley State.