Robotics team competes in Colorado tournament

The Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (M-SET) robotics team finished 13th out of 50 teams and ended with a record of 8-6-0 in the Colorado Regional tournament from April 3-5 in Denver.  

“We didn’t win, but we had a good performance and our robot was working well,” senior club president Mihir Iyer said. “This was probably the best we’ve had a robot work, ever.”

Senior Ivan France won the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Dean’s Finalist award, which commended him for his technical and leadership skills and his ability to inspire the team.

“I was a little hopeful, but when they called my name, I was pretty shocked,” France said. “I didn't really realize what was going on until I was halfway through the line of judges.”

At the tournament, the team's robot, nicknamed Gus, had to pick up two yoga balls and shoot them both into rectangular openings about 7 feet off the ground. The team received the challenge the weekend of Jan. 4, giving them six weeks to build, test and work with the robot.

To transport the robot to Denver, the team had to place it in a plastic bag and build a crate so FedEx could pick it up and ship it to the tournament.

 This was the first time the team had shipped any of its robots to a different place by plane.

“Building the crate and packing it to make sure nothing broke was a tough thing, and there was a lot of late nights trying to get everything packed,” Iyer said.

The tournament began with a day of qualification matches. After qualification rounds, the top eight teams were allowed to choose three alliance partners to compete with them in the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. MSET was the second choice for the sixth-place team.  

“We had a couple consistency issues, but overall I am very proud of how the team performed,” France said. “There are so many incredibly talented people in FIRST that do so much.”