Oxford High School’s Robocats qualified to compete in the state championship to be held April 1-3 at Eastern Michigan, but in order to pariticipate the team must immediately raise $4,000 for the registration fee.
The road to the state championship has not been a smooth ride for the RoboCats.
Prior to the season, the team found out that they would be losing one of their largest sponsors, cutting their already small budget in half.
Unfortunately, due to the economic conditions, low sponsorship this year, and the large cost of attending The State Championship, the RoboCats cannot participate without your help.
The team needs to raise $4,000 in order to participate. We are in desperate need of donations this week. We must pay for our registration fee next week. We are asking for your help through financial aid. Any donation would be greatly appreciated.
If you or your company is able to provide us with $500 or more, we will display your name or your company logo on our robot. No donation is too big or small. We desperately want to represent Oxford High School at the State competition and would greatly appreciate ANY donation.
All donations are tax-exempt and a donation certification with tax-exempt number will be provided upon request. Thank you for helping us to reach our goal of $4,000 in one week!
If you can help support team 2137 with a tax-deductible donation, big or small, please contact Jason Eldridge at 248-969-5100 ext. 4163 or Nancy Zuccaro at 248-628-3312.
You can also send donations to: Oxford High School; Attn: Jason Eldridge ? RoboCats; 745 N. Oxford Rd., Oxford, MI 48371
For those of you not familiar with F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) or The Oxford RoboCats (Team 2137), think of it as a varsity sport for the mind combining the excitement of sports with the rigors of science and technology.
The strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team ‘brand,? hone teamwork skills, and build and program robots to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors.?
It’s as close to ‘real-world engineering? as a student can get. Volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team.
This year’s competition involves two alliances of three schools that operate their robot to compete in a sometimes not-so-friendly game of soccer including many familiar rules such as hand-balls and red cards.
Students are given a short six weeks to brainstorm, design, construct, test, and program a robot prior to competitions beginning.
The RoboCats from Oxford High School kicked off their competition season two weekends ago at Wayne State University, where a strong performance during the competition earned them a spot in the finals.
Although the team had a solid performance in the finals, their team alliance did not win. Following the competition on March 19-20, team 2137 decided to make minor enhancements to the robot design before competition on March 26-27.
The RoboCats entered a much stronger robot into competition this past week at Troy Athens. Going into the finals, the RoboCats were ranked fifth out of forty strong Michigan teams, earning them the honor of becoming an alliance captain.
During the finals, the RoboCats had the unfortunate surprise of their CompactRIO failing, which is the brain of the robot. In a scramble, the team called a six-minute timeout in an attempt to resurrect their robot.
With the help of another F.I.R.S.T. team, the RoboCats were able to replace the CompactRIO and get back on the field with mere seconds to spare.
However, due to time constraints, the robot was armed only with a drivetrain and no ability to kick the soccer balls.
Thanks to the quality drivetrain engineered by the students of team 2137, they were still able to dominate their opponents and advance to the semi-finals.
Unfortunately the eventual district champions stopped the RoboCats short of the finals.
The teams strong performance at the Detroit and Troy districts competitions earned them the right to compete at the Michigan State Championship event being held April 1 -3 at Eastern Michigan University.