The Red Alliance, comprised of students from Waialua High, Island Pacific Academy and Baldwin High School, outscored the Blue Alliance from Punahou School, West Hawaii Exploratory Academy and McKinley High to win the 2012 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in Hawaii Regional Robots Competition.<\/p>\n
The March 22-24 event honors teams that show design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.<\/p>\n
The students from each school had six weeks to work with professional mentors to build a robot that would compete in the “Robot Rumble” at the regional competition at the Stan Sheriff Center.<\/p>\n
During the “rumble,” student-built robots perform in a basketball-style game where teams have two corner and two center goals to throw balls into.<\/p>\n
It was a battle to the third-round finish as defending champion Waialua helped the Red Alliance take an early lead by winning round one. Then the Blue Alliance answered back in the second round.<\/p>\n
In the last seconds of the third round, the Baldwin and Island Pacific robots tipped over while on the bridge, taking them out of the match. McKinley tried to capitalize on the opportunity to make more baskets, but in the end the Red Alliance still came out victorious.<\/p>\n
Waialua High School also took a home the prestigious Quality Award, sponsored by Motorola.<\/p>\n
There were 38 high school student teams that vied for a spot in the championship, but in the end it’s Island Pacific Academy and Baldwin, Kealakehe, Kohala and Waialua high schools that will represent Hawaii at the 2012 FIRST Championships April 25-28 in Missouri.<\/p>\n