Mars robotics team takes 3rd in state
The Mars Robotics Association team went undefeated at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) state championship March 8 and 9 in Bellefonte, Pa., landing them in third place in all of Pennsylvania.
While the team’s journey is over for the season, one of its members, Alex Hutchens, a 10th grade student at Mars Area High School, was a finalist for the FIRST Tech Challenge’s dean's list award, and he will be one of four students who will represent Pennsylvania at the World Championship.
The championship tournament takes place April 16 through 19 in Houston, Texas, and Alex said he is happy to represent Pennsylvania in the world of robotics.
“I feel as if all of my hard work has paid off and it was all worth it,” Alex said. “I am super excited to go to worlds and have fun and let my hard work pay off.”
Colby Kohnen, an 11th grade student at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School and Mars Robotics Association member, said most of the students who join the Mars Robotics Association have little to no experience working with robotics or programming. Anyone can join the group, and it now has 11 team members who compete in events across the state.
According to Colby, now that the regular season for the FIRST Tech Challenge is over, the team can focus on learning and honing their skills in building robots and programming them to perform certain tasks. The competitions challenge students by having them program robots to help solve problems that could be automated in the real world.
“We’re still meeting now, working on off-season outreach, building new robots and new skills,” Colby said.
“We have to play a game based on real world problems and score points. We have to tell robots to do tasks and assemble our own custom robot,” he added about the FIRST Tech Challenge games.
The theme for this year’s state competition was “Into the Deep,” and presented challenges relating to water problems and events. Each event at the FIRST Tech Challenge paired two teams together to work on a challenge, and robots got points for how well they did in each event.
“The game itself is you have to grab little plastic blocks out of a big container and put them in bins or hang them onto bars, which is supposed to mimic finding specimens in the water and bringing them out,” Colby said. “You have a time limit. There’s 30 seconds where it’s the robot moving on its own, then two minutes you get to pilot it.”
The other students on the team each said they had good experiences not only at competitions, but learning the ropes of robotics and programming at biweekly team meetings.
“Overall, this season of robotics has led me not only to become better at mechanical skills, but also in learning how to reach out in the community for professional help,” said Audrey Anderson, a 10th grade student at Pine-Richland High School. “I’m also pumped for this coming season with some of the plans we have.”
Even though the team finished third overall, being undefeated is a point of pride for the team members.
“It was so exciting making to states,” said Emma Salasky, a 10th grade student at Knoch High School. “It was an honor to be third place and a team undefeated during ranking matches.”
Each student on the team has a different main role, but they all get the same lessons at regular meetings, so they can plausibly do every role on a robotic team. Colby is the drive coach, meaning he is one of the main pilots for the robot, but he said he also learned how to program a robot for certain purposes and even work on the hardware.
A senior on the team said being a part of the association since ninth grade was one of the best experiences of his high school life.
“This season, being surrounded by teammates that I’ve shared a lab with for three years, was by far my favorite,” said Nate “Gremlin” Taylor, a 12th grade student at Seneca Valley Senior High School. “I was given the absolute privilege to be surrounded by such amazing minds, and I can only wish them the best in any and all future endeavors.”
For more information on the Mars Robotics Association, visit its website at marsroboticsassociation.org.
