Burroughs Robotics Team Photo

John Burroughs School Robotics Team Qualifies for World Competition

The John Burroughs School 4211 robotics team advances as the only St. Louis team to qualify for the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championships.

The John Burroughs School 4211 robotics team advances as the only St. Louis team to qualify for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge World Championships.

It will compete in a field of 128 teams from 10 countries at Union Station in St. Louis from April 26 to 29. This will be the fourth time that Burroughs has sent a team to the World Championships in five years.

More than 4,600 teams competed worldwide this year in the robot competition, VELOCITY VORTEX. Working with their mentors, students designed, built, documented and programmed a CAD-designed and laser-cut aluminum robot that uses sprockets, gears, motors, sensors and servos.

The competing teams use WiFi-controlled phones to move their robots on a 12-by-12-foot playing field, directing their robots to accomplish specified tasks in a test of precision and speed.

Burroughs Robotics Team Photo
From left are Angelo Benoit, Dylan Fox, Ben Stegeman (team captain), John Woodruff, Amaan Banga, Adam Banga, William Hylen, Adnaan Raza, Andy Zhang, Ben Wei and Hannah Stroup.

As in all FIRST competitions, the winning teams’ robots were those judged most capable of fulfilling tasks by virtue of their design, construction and programming.

To earn its place at Worlds, the Burroughs team competed throughout the state and region, most recently at the North Super-Regional Championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where its robot, Sharpie Bot 2.0, won the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award.

Earlier this season, the team earned a variety of awards competing at two Missouri qualifying tournaments and at the Missouri State Championship held at Missouri University of Science and Technology at Rolla.

Loading