MASON CITY – At this week’s school board meeting, a group of Mason City teens showed off a robot (and two awards) they designed.
The four young men, Juan Cornejo-Rios, Johney Rhem, Jose Rios, and James Walker, brought with them a robot they and several other team members designed for technical competitions, which brought them the two awards.
According to Principles of Engineering instructor James Mills, the first award the team won was the Connect Award – an award given to teams that the judges felt best were connecting to their community. The other award was a Finalist Award given to teams that made it to the final match of the competition.
Mills was able to obtain a couple of start-up grants in order to fund the robotics team, called “The United Robotics” and get them to competitions.
“As much as I’ve wanted to, I’ve refrained from learning how the thing works,” Mills said, “because I didn’t want to become that coach that does the work for he team. This is their robot.”
Team member Juan Cornejo-Rios said of the team’s name that it “may not be as interesting” as other teams they competed against, “but it definitely came from the heart.”
The team put a lot of hard work and thought into their robot in order to achieve a working final product, which they have used in competitions in Hudson and Johnston.
“We practiced every Saturday at the Mason City Library,” said team member Johney Rhem.
The team continues to meet and plan for future competitions.
Watch video:
httpv://youtu.be/Nn2E_8XTGrg
