Where in the world is the Hermes? The Hugotrons are pictured with The Hugoton Hermes at FSI! Back row, left to right are Sponsor James Tower, Sophie Tower, Brendan Gill, Raymond Lamatsch and Coach Mariette Gerber. In the front row are Sponsor Liz Tower, Caitlyn Johnson, Paitan Schobert and Coach Kalinda Wight. Photo courtesy of Kalinda Wight.
Tuesday, June 24 to Saturday, June 28, the Hugoton Hugotrons High School Robotics Team participated in the FIRST LEGO League Florida Sunshine Open Invitational (FSI) event in Daytona Beach, Fl.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University hosted over 80 teams from around the world to compete in 4 areas: Core Values, Innovation Project, Robot Design and Robot Game.
This year’s theme was Submerged, which focused on learning about the oceans and the effect that humans have on marine ecosystems. After learning that their scores at the Regional First LEGO League tournament in Liberal were high enough to receive an invite to FSI, the Hugotrons worked hard to secure the funding for their trip and continue practicing. Preparing for FSI challenged these six high school students to grow their business, presentation, technical, spatial and teamwork skills. Each of these students put in countless hours outside of school to perform their best in this competition and represent southwest Kansas to the rest of the world. Their coaches and families are very proud of them.
On their trip, the Hugotrons traveled by airplane to Daytona Beach. For several students, this was their first time seeing the ocean and they enjoyed spending time on the beach upon arrival. Before the competition, the team explored the Daytona Beach area and visited many places, including an aquarium and an FSI-provided opportunity for several students to visit the Kennedy Space Center.
During the competition, the team worked hard to do their best in the robot game matches and the judging events. In the robot game, they competed in 3 solo matches and 3 alliance matches. Their assigned alliance team was the Epic 8 from Des Moines, Iowa. The Hugotrons received their highest scores of the season and enjoyed bonding with their Iowa alliance. In the judged innovation project presentation, the team showed off their maritime UAS rescue kit that uses an everyday drone to drop an automatically-inflating life buoy to swimmers in distress. In the robot design event, they presented their team-designed robot, attachments, and code, along with professional instructions on how to replicate the design. Overall, the Hugoton team performed well at FSI, but did not place.
Throughout the week, students also managed a booth that represented Hugoton, Kansas and they gave away sunflowers for other teams to wear. They also hosted dinner for The Sharks team from South Africa and enjoyed learning about other cultures. After the tournament, the team returned to Hugoton Sunday, June 29.
While on their travels, the Hugotrons made sure to take a picture with the Hermes while at FSI! Team members included Captain Brendan Gill, Asst. Captain Sophie Tower, Raymond Lamatsch, Caitlyn Johnson, Paitan Schobert, and Wyatt Hudgins. Team coaches were Kalinda Wight and Mariëtte Gerber. Sponsors that traveled with the team were James Tower and Liz Tower.
The team would like to thank their many sponsors for making this trip possible. Business sponsors included: American Implement, Cactus Feeders, C-T Machine Shop, Dream First Bank, G+ Ag, Inc., Hi-Plains Lumber, Jordan Air, Pheasant Heaven Charities, Pioneer Electric, Tate Kitzke and Foreman, Willis Insurance Agency, and Yardmaster/Squeaky Clean Car Wash. The team would also like to extend a special thanks to their families and community for the huge support they provided in helping the team.