FIRST Robotics Championship 2022- Finals and Back Home

Friday - Second Day of Qualifier and Ceremonies

The humming sounds of water running from the sink and the streaks of lights refracting from the bathroom door awoke me. Like the one early bird in our room, my roommates and I dragged ourselves out of bed, got ready, purchased a smoothie for breakfast, and sluggishly walked down to the hotel’s lobby. We wrestled out the front entrance as the sun’s rays bounced off the dewy windows of the skyscrapers into our drowsy eyes. The buildings stood guard like fearless knights, watching above us as my team strolled down blocks to catch the metro train. We scanned our train pass and waited for the train. Business people dressed in khakis and polished collared shirts, sipping their morning coffee, trying not to be blown away by the harsh Houston wind, hurried down the streets as cars buzzed by. Beside us was a woman with frayed clothes pushing a tattered buggy with what probably was all of her belongings. Finally, the train arrived, and we all got onto the train. I had never ridden on a train before until I came to Texas, so this was a new experience for most of my teammates and me. 


We passed by rows of buildings with murals and restaurants, stores, and hotels. Pulling up into the Brown Convention, a bustling crowd of kids and young adults wearing colorful and vibrant shirts, hats, skirts, capes, and other garments filled the streets. Food trucks lined the sidewalk in front of the building. The convention center was lavish, and glass was the primary material of the construction. We walked to one of the entrances and had our bags checked. The inside was a long and open corridor; the ceilings were high and deep, stretching to the left and right of the building. People sat on the floor near beams that were holding up the roof. Beverages, food, and gift shops covered the walls of the hallways. In the middle of the corridor was a gaping hole that was the entrance to the FIRST Robotics competition arena and pits. We walked in, and beeping sounds, robot motors, and announcers’ commentary filled our ears. “Ahhs” and “Oohs” echoed throughout the vast stadium. To the right were the pits that looked like the city skyline that went on forever.

On the left were the stands where the teams and observers would view the matches. Of course, in front of the platform was the game field. Above each section of stands were signs that named each area. Our division, the Carver division, was the farthest from the entrance. So, my team walked to the seating areas to view our robots’ first match and do light scouting. After that, I went upstairs to explore the college fair convention. Some tables hosted different schools, universities, and programs like MIT, YALE, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. I collected information, pamphlets, and flyers from these schools. Next, I attend a seminar about how to run a successful team. Learning about what makes a successful team and others’ mistakes made me realize how productive and ahead the Commodores are, but we still lack some basic standards. We are not perfect. No team is. When the afternoon rolled around,  Mr. Hatcher bought our team chick fila for lunch. I stuffed my face with a chicken sandwich while sitting on the carpeted floor in the corridor and then scrambled upstairs again to participate in the Black networking convention. Multiple African Americans in different fields came to this network to talk about their career and connect. I met two people who work at NASA. Brianna Johnson does Trajectory Design and G&C Analyst for NASA, and Dr. Cecil Shy is a project manager for NASA. Mrs. Johnson figures out the flight routes for different satellites and rockets while Mr. Shy approves various projects and tests if they work. I asked them questions about their jobs, what they do, how they got into their field, and how being black affects how people view them and how to overcome it.

When the networking ended, I bounced back down to our pit to check up on the robot. Big Mac was having a rough day, and his drivetrain got a little janky. So, the pit crew and I fixed him up. Finally, I climbed up to the stands to watch our final matches and the ceremonies. Surprisingly, we won the Judges Award in our division. At first, I couldn’t believe it; we won an award at the World Championships, and the judges picked us out of 75 teams. Our chins pointed to the sky as we accepted our prize, as the crowd clapped, cheered, and swooned for us.

Back Home

Rolling out of my bed at 5:00 am, I gathered all of my clothing, shoes, and pins and lethargically moved my stuff downstairs to the lobby. We quickly hopped on the bus and headed back to Albany, Georgia. Darkness covered the buildings, and city lights sporadically shone through, looking out the window. I instantly fell asleep and woke up to the sunlight shining in my eye and cars zipping by. We passed by the oil wells that lined the border of Texas, we traveled through Louisiana and revisited the crawfish farms and french style buildings. We passed over the Mississippi River and the gambling signs that stood by the highway. Plantations, stores, restaurants, marine ports, and trees flew by as we watched the Terminator movies on the bus. Again, we stopped for food and bathroom breaks in Louisiana and Florida. After reminiscing on my memories in Texas, an Albany sign grew closer, coming out from the abyss. Suddenly, we were at the 4c academy, and we knew that our vacation was over. Have you ever heard people say they changed after traveling to a different state or country? Traveling to a big city like Houston exposed me to other people, cultures, and opportunities. It made me realize that a little ole city like Albany had similarities to a diverse city like Houston. For instance, poverty. Albany is not the wealthiest city, but I never saw strips of tents occupied by homeless people like I saw in Houston. It made me realize that my community is not the only one that suffers from problems. Likewise, Houston is still vastly different from Albany. Tall buildings and skyscrapers ruled the city forever, while Albany barely had enough people to be considered a city. My parents greeted me in the 4c parking lot and helped me put my luggage in the car.





FIRST Robotics Championships- Day3

First Day of Qualifiers

I woke up earlier than usual. I had time to go downstairs to the restaurant and eat breakfast instead of a smoothie. After that, my group trailed to the metro train. Next, we went upstairs to the FIRST Tech Challenge pits, collecting pins and meeting new people. We encountered an all-girls Nigerian team and took pictures. (Robot pits are spaces that each team has been provided to work on their robots and set up shop).

Additionally, we took pictures with teams from Jamaica, Taiwan, and Korea.  Adding on to our streak, we met a group from Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia, south of the Russian border. My eyes lit up when I saw their turquoise and yellow flags because Central Asia gets very little representation. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan are rarely mentioned, at least in America. Of course, we took plenty of pictures with them. After we toured some more robot pits, we went downstairs and gathered our other friends to view other teams. 

Collecting buttons and viewing other teams' working areas, we met people from across the country and worldwide. For instance, we met two crews from Turkey, one of them was from Istanbul, Team 2905.  They were bubbly and friendly and gave us delicious chocolate from their home country.  We visited teams from Israel, India, Mexico, Colorado, Massachusetts, Louisiana, and all over really.  Walking around, learning about other cultures, admiring the decorative robot pits, playing games, etc., made me miss a conference that my team signed me up for that FIRST was sponsoring. I’ll find another conference to attend - they are all interesting.

Soon, we moved on from looking at pits and decided to go to the Innovation Fair on the third floor.  It is a career fair where you learn about different jobs or programs that companies or organizations offer.  NASA, Disney, and many other companies' booths filled the room.  Excitedly, I bounced over to the NASA booth to learn if they have internships or summer programs for high school students. Talking to the speaker, I learned that he knew about the Commodore's Robotics, as a student at Georgia Tech - how cool!  So, of course, I asked for his email and will hopefully keep in contact with him. Janessa, my friend, was thrilled to see the Disney booth, and she learned more about the programs they offer.

Suddenly, I got a headache and realized that I hadn't eaten in hours. So my friends and I went out to eat. When I sat down, I was called to the pits to talk to the judges.  They were there to learn about our team and our team’s community outreach.  I was a part of a small team of Commodores who presented for the Chairman’s Award at the Georgia competitions. We shared information about The Commodore Gardens, our GroupUp project at 4C aimed at having an impact on food insecurity in south Albany.  Judging by their expressions, I think they were impressed with our school and our outreach.  I stuffed my food in my mouth and sprinted towards our pit.  As I was catching up on how our robot was doing, a couple of my friends met Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST robotics.  I was a little jealous.  After that, I went to the stands and watched a couple of matches. 

As the sun drowned into the abyss over the Texas sky, the event center got sparse, and the first day of Qualifiers was over.  My team went to the Shake Shack for dinner. When we got to the hotel, everyone decided to go down to the pool. However, I stayed in the room to clean up and rest a little. Today was chaotic and exhausting, but meeting so many different people and learning more about other careers made my future goals more achievable and clear.

Our scavenger hunt for today was to take three pictures of our team with teams from foreign countries and two pictures of our team with teams outside of the Southeast.  Additionally, we needed to send a picture of the most unique giveaway item from another team. Lastly, there was a bonus for the group that got a picture with Dean Kamen. I am happy to announce that my group achieved every single challenge.  I can’t wait for tomorrow!



FIRST Robotics Championships- Day 2

Day 2:  NASA

Sunlight broke through the blinds as the sounds of cars passed by, Tuesday has arrived. My room got up late and we were some of the last ones to arrive for breakfast. However, we could barely eat because we were so excited to visit the NASA Space Center. Anticipation ruled the atmosphere on the bus as we crept closer to the space center. Driving in the parking lot, a huge modern building came into view. A park was on the left side of the building and on the right monumental rockets towered over the buildings, touching the clouds. The inside was open and clear with a rocket capsule model in the middle of it. Signs hung overhead and named the different parts of the museum. My group decided to go into the Starship Gallery and learned about the  early days of rockets and space exploration. We saw the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules on display. Additionally, we saw the largest public display of moon rocks. 

After that, we went upstairs to a game educational center. We stood on weights that calculated how much we would weigh on different planets and played with rocket launching simulations. We walked in different space capsules and watched a documentary about space. However, we had to leave the movie early because we were going to ride the Tram Tour. The train took us around the NASA campus and showed us different areas of the museum. We learned  a lot of interesting facts about the space center grounds. For instance, white tailed deer and cows roam the empty fields. The center was crowded with different FIRST robotics teams and other travelers from all around the world. The train stopped us in front of experimental  rockets that never took flight. We took pictures and went inside the building that hosted a leviathan rocket that was the size of a football field.  Everybody pulled out their cameras to take pictures and videos of this human creation. Honestly, it's amazing to think that humans, people like you and me, could imagine and create such a marvelous and complex structure capable of flying into space.

Of course we took many pictures and learned interesting facts for our scavenger hunt. We took pictures inside the museum and in front of the rockets. We learned that the Houston NASA space center was also a wildlife preserve. Additionally, studying the signs with the Apollo rockets information, we observed that Apollo 23456 were not listed because they were unsuccessful. A couple of  strange facts that we learned for that scavenger hunt was that  Apollo 12 got struck by lightning as it was blasting off from Earth and NASA was first created to create programs in the ocean and not space.

Some other groups decided to visit the Houston Aquarium after lunch.  “At the aquarium, I was able to walk around lively scenes with my amazing teammates and experience different sea creatures for the first time!  Touching the stingrays, seeing the white bengal tigers, and riding rides with my friends brought me joy and helped create such great memories.  This day was so much fun for us all and I just can’t wait for the other memories that this week will bring!”  Enedalia Garcia-Romera, Junior at Dougherty Comprehensive High School.

For dinner, my group decided to eat at a Japanese restaurant called Gyu Kaku. It was delicious and we will probably go back again sometime this week.  I can’t wait for tomorrow!


FIRST Championship 2022- Day 1

Hello!  My name is Payton Bush, and I am a freshman at Westover and the 4C Academy. My FIRST Robotics Team 6919, or the Commodores, qualified for the World Championships in Houston, Texas.  This blog will include daily journal entries about our team's activities during the robotics trip.  


Traveling from Albany, we could see the differences between our city and state once we got close to different borders. Each state had different scenes that were unique.. For instance, in Alabama, we saw farms and cows and abandoned buildings. In Mississippi, we saw the coastal town of Gulf Port and passed through a tunnel that went under the ocean.  Some of us held our breath.  We passed gambling signs in Mississippi because gambling is legal there.  In Louisiana, we passed crawfish farms that looked like little orange balls in the swamp.  We passed buildings with murals and french colonial-style structures. We passed over the Mississippi River, which was huge, along with other ports. 


As we got closer to Texas, we saw several oil wells and plants. We saw more abandoned buildings, factories, nuclear plants, and power plants throughout the trip. Farm equipment shops, shopping centers, truck stops, restaurants, and hotels were other common sites.  We saw multiple people fishing on the bridges and boats. We saw marshes that went over yonder. We made two pit stops in total, both in Louisiana. Tall buildings appeared from the clouds as we traveled on the overpasses, and we knew that we were in Houston.  It was a long day of travel, but it seemed to go by fast on the bus with our friends.  As we drove into the city, we were greeted with tents under the underpass occupied by the homeless and beggars. Houston is a big and beautiful city. However, I realized that, like every other city, it has its problems.


Once we checked into our hotel, we were divided into 4 groups, each with a chaperone - yellow, red, green, and blue.  I am in the blue group.  After dinner, Mr. Hatcher introduced a daily scavenger hunt game.  The group that wins the competition will receive a prize at the end of the trip. Tuesday’s scavenger hunt will be at the NASA Space Center.  We will have to write three intriguing facts that we learned about NASA and take 3 group pictures.  I can’t wait until tomorrow!



Payton Bush

FIRST Championship- Finale

World Robotics Championship- Finale
Kiana Wright

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Improvement makes everyone feel nice inside, no matter how big or small. For us, we improved A LOT in the competition compared to last year.

This year, we finished the qualifying rounds in (drumroll please) 9TH PLACE! That night, we were feeling pretty good about possibly being picked to be on an alliance. Of course, there was also the possibility of us forming our own alliance - our drive team scouted the other teams just in case. Due to our level of excitement, most of didn’t go to sleep until around 11:30. On a normal day, this would’ve been okay, but we had to wake up at 5 AM in order to get to the Convention Center before 7:30 for the awards ceremony (EPIC FAIL).

As you could imagine, we were drop-dead exhausted in the morning, but we didn’t focus on that for too long. Why? Things didn’t exactly turn out the way we imagined. As our chances dwindled for a spot on an alliance, our nerves sky-rocketed. Would we be picked? Our prayers were answered when alliance 7 picked us to be their 4th robot (cue us cheering in the stands)!

Most of the time, the 4th robot doesn’t get the opportunity to play. But, due to an oddly convenient turn of events (the alliance captain decided that we would be better at defense than the chosen team), we got our opportunity in the spotlight. I didn’t get to see our first quarter-finals match, but I was told that we lost by ONE POINT (are you kidding me!?)!  With nervous-excitement, our team awaited our next match. If we lost the match, we would be out of the competition; if we won, there would be a tie-breaker match to decide who continues to the semi-finals.

Thankfully, we won the second match and made it to the tie-breaker round. At this point, I’m pretty sure our entire team was just a nervous bundle of energy. We probably could’ve powered the entire city of Houston with our anxiety. For the length of the whole match, we cheered, shouted and prayed in hopes that we would make it to the semi-finals. As the match concluded, it seemed as though we had lost, but when the rockets were shown, the blue rocket (our alliance color) flew higher than the red.

WE MADE IT TO THE SEMI-FINALS (in our division)!

I’m not sure about anyone else, but at this point, I wasn’t concerned about us winning our division. We made it a lot further than we did last year and that’s all that mattered to me (I later found out most of my team members felt the same way). We did end up losing both semi-final matches, but that was perfectly okay. After watching the finals for our division, everyone except the drive team went back to the hotel to rest. One of my roommates and I took a nap, and may I just say that it was the best nap I had taken on the trip.

After a few hours of relaxing, we finally got up to attend the REAL finals at the Minute Maid Stadium – the two best teams in the world going head to head. Minute Maid Park was practically bursting with energy and enthusiasm. You should’ve seen the thousands of people dancing in sync to the Macarena. It was like a rainbow waving to the music beat!

We first got to watch a brief awards ceremony involving all the FIRST competitions held at the Convention Center. To announce the winner of the Woodie Flowers Award, Woodie Flowers (a renowned mechanical engineer from MIT) himself appeared to speak and give the award! That’s not even the best part. Dean Kamen (the founder of FIRST and inventor of the Segway) came out and gave an inspiring speech to the tens of thousands of people in the crowd! Saying that it was an honor to be in the same space as Woodie Flowers and Dean Kamen might make me sound like a fangirl, but it’s how I feel.

Seeing the winning team cry tears of joy as they embraced each other tugged at my heartstrings. It made me emotional because it reminded me of all the reasons why I love robotics. Everyone is friendly and you can learn so much. There are various opportunities in robotics including being able to make new friends. But the best part about robotics is forming a family with your teammates and rediscovering what it means to have people who love and care about you.

Being there with my teammates is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. I may not say it often (or at all), but I love each and every person on my team, no matter what conflicts may have occurred between us. Joining the team is the best thing I could’ve done in my life and I’m so thankful to have met such amazing people.

After my second season of robotics, I’ve also learned that robotics isn’t just about the robot you build or your performance in the game. It’s about working together with people who may have otherwise never talked to before. It’s about coming together to solve problems and being there to support each other. It’s about having self-discoveries and realizing talents you never knew you had. I could write a book on this topic, but for the sake of this entry, I’ll leave it at this.

As we watched the firework finale together, we got to relax and act like teenagers. We sang out loud to our favorite songs and didn’t care if we sounded horrible. We also danced like there was no tomorrow and just enjoyed each other’s company for the evening

We were all tired when we arrived back at the hotel, so I’m sure most of us went to sleep immediately. Especially considering that we had to wake up early to arrive at the airport (ugh, flying!). Thankfully, the flight wasn’t downright awful (our mentors kept me distracted) and at the time of writing this, we are on a bus back to Smallbany.

Going to Houston was so much fun and I hope to have the opportunity to return one day.  We would like to say thank you again to our sponsors for believing in us and helping us to get to Houston. Without you, it simply would not have been possible for us to go.

It’s hard to describe in words how grateful we are for the trip. We worked hard the whole season to prove that a small team from a little city can be just as great as a big team from a large city; it showed well because we participated at the world stage with the best teams from around the world. Though the future isn’t guaranteed, we will try our best to make it to Worlds again.

It was an honor to write these blog entries, but I guess this is the end.

Until next time, have a nice day!



 
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FIRST Championship- Day 3

Day 3 – Robotics World Championship
Kiana Wright

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This entry is a bit longer than the others, but there was a lot to write about. 

Everyone likes to look nice every once in a while. Even if you don’t feel your best, sometimes you just want to look good. 

Before the Team Social, I wasn’t quite all together. So, I decided that if I wasn’t going to feel well, at least I would look the part. For the people who know me well enough, you know I don’t wear dresses, skirts, or anything girly for that matter (I hate them more than I hate flying). However, for once in my life, I didn’t want to feel confined in a pair of pants. 

Putting on a flowy skirt and salmon shirt, I should’ve known my team would do the absolute most. They are my #1 fanbase and support group; even though it gets on my nerves, I guessI love them for it. 

Moving on to the Team Social, there was so much going on. There were different games you could play including (but not limited to) beanbag toss, football, giant Connect 4 and ping-pong. On two different stages, you could either do karaoke or watch a concert with a live band. If you were hungry, there were plenty of food trucks with a variety of foods from different countries to fill you up. 

My partner and I, along with a few boys, went to check out the concert for a few minutes at the beginning. The boys didn’t look too into it, but my partner and I were singing along to some of the songs we knew. Afterwards, the boys wanted to play arcade games, but nothing interested them, and we ended up observing the scene for a while. 

Skipping over that bland period, my partner and I ended up at the Silent Disco. I know what you’re thinking: how can a disco be silent? I’m glad you asked! At the entrance, the volunteers hand you a pair of headphones set to play whatever song the DJ decides on. No one outside the headphones can hear a single thing, so it looks like a group of people jamming out to silence. My team and I had the BEST time there and almost didn’t want to leave. But all good things must eventually come to an end.

The next day, you would not BELIEVE what happened. I, Kiana Wright, was social again (*gasps*). I interviewed two people (one from Mexico; one from China) about themselves and their robotics experience. 

Rodrigo Pazarán is from team #5526 (tCATs); he’s a 15-year-old from México. His hobbies include robotics, art, writing and chess. In school, he is studying hard in his academics. Since he is a freshman, he will graduate in 2022. To him, the most challenging thing about being in high school is balancing school, his emotions and academics (Amen, brother). He thinks the world competition in Houston is amazing for a few reasons. To begin, he likes meeting new people and getting the opportunity to polish his English skills as he is the translator for his team (In my opinion, his English is already great). In addition, he’s a rookie to robotics and this is his team’s first time coming to a world competition. From his perspective, FIRST is like a salvation for some people; they are getting involved in robotics and they know what they want to do. He also likes FIRST because he gets to hear so many amazing stories.  

Moving on, Vicki Wang is from team #7529 (Mulan); surprisingly, she’s a 21-year-old from Shenzhen, China. Her hobbies include robotics, traveling and photography (I bet she’s amazing). In college, she is majoring in Mechanical Engineering as she graduated from high school in 2017. For her, the most challenging thing in high school was communicating and making new friends. She had just moved from China and didn’t know how to speak English well which posed many challenges for her. Fortunately, she now speaks beautifully fluent English. Just like Rodrigo, Vicki believes that this tournament is amazing with the different countries and cultures together in one place. According to her, FIRST gives kids an opportunity to participate in different experiences, fix mistakes and “steal” (consider) other’s ideas and maybe incorporate them to their own robot. 

I had a fun time interviewing Rodrigo and Vicki (well, my team member interviewed Vicki). I not only got to work on my social skills, I made two new friends who ended up wanting to read this entry. If you guys are reading this entry, I want to thank you for allowing me to conduct an interview on you. You guys are amazing people and I loved talking with the both of you. I’m giving you both credit for showing me that I can be introverted and still enjoy communicating with people. 

As of the end of the qualification matches, we finished 9thplace out of 68thin our division which quite is impressive for any team, especially a second-year team. I can’t wait until tomorrow! Our whole team is hoping we get picked to be in an alliance, although our chances are good to become an alliance captain! 

Who knows? Maybe we’ll even make it to the finals!

Kiana Wright is a sophomore who is in her second year at the 4C Academy.  She is in the Information Technology pathway at 4C and has been a robotics team member since its inception.  Ms. Wright is a sophomore at Westover High School and enjoys reading, writing and learning languages.  She has a career aspiration to become a Psychologist.

 
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First Championships- Day 2

Day 2 – World Robotics Competition.  
Kiana Wright

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Communication and people are NOT my strong suit. I’m typically horrible with both, so you’d be surprised with how I managed to get members from other teams to take a picture with me.

 After the rest of our team arrived at the Convention Center, Mr. Hatcher announced a contest where (if we chose to participate) we had to take pictures with members from other teams around the world. There would be two winners: one for the best selfie with another team and one for a selfie with a foreign team furthest in distance from Albany. At first, my partner and I weren’t going to do the competition, but our competitive spirits weren’t having any nonsense. 

 We had another team member to join our quest for photos, but he later ditched us. Fortunately for him, it was for a drive team meeting, so he didn’t have to face my wrath. Anyway, with about 409 teams – from 24 countries and 42 states – and over 8,000 team members, my partner and I figured we’d have a good shot at winning the contest. There was just one problem: we’re both bad with people. 

 There was a tiny disagreement over who would talk to the members, but it was quickly decided that I would be the one doing the talking while she took the pictures. In the beginning, I was anxious about asking other team members for a picture and by the end…I was still anxious, but I had gotten better at communicating. We got to meet people from Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Columbia, China, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Thankfully, everyone was super amiable and generous about taking pictures with us. 

 Coming from Smallbany, Georgia, meeting members from other countries and being a part of all of this is astounding. It’s not everyday that you get to meet someone from China and trade social medias with a girl from Turkey. With a melting-pot of people together in one building, it’s a delightfully over-whelming event we’re experiencing. 

 During the Qualifying matches on Day 3 in Houston, we unfortunately lost our first match (28 – 85). However, we managed to come back and win our second match (58 – 42), third match (91 – 52) and final match for today (56-54). Currently, we are in 9thplace out of the 67 teams in our division and for a second-year team, this is astonishing!  We will have five more qualifying matches tomorrow.

 Later tonight, we will attend a Team Social and participate in activities with other team members. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make more new friends and learn about other cultures in the process.  

 Tune-in tomorrow for Day 3!

 Kiana Wright is a sophomore who is in her second year at the 4C Academy.  She is in the Information Technology pathway at 4C and has been a robotics team member since its inception.  Ms. Wright is a sophomore at Westover High School and enjoys reading, writing and learning languages.  She has a career aspiration to become a Psychologist.

 
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FIRST Championships- Day 1

Day 1 – World Robotics Competition.  
Kiana Wright

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I hate flying with a deep burning passion. However, in order for our robotics team to reach the world competition in Houston, Texas, flying was the only option. 

 Day 1 started very early.  We met at the 4C Academy at 6:15 in the morning; well, most of us. Two of our team members, who happen to be twins, were still sleeping causing a slight delay in our travels. We boarded bus 6919 for a smooth four-hour drive to the Hartfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta. There, we only had to wait about ten minutes to get through airport security and bag checking, which should’ve been a quick experience but, some of our members were searched and one even lost her shoe (she later found it)! 

Boarding the plane for Houston, there was another slight delay as one of our members left her bag in the airport. Thankfully, our mentor was able to retrieve it and we took off with no further mishaps. As far as flights go, I was told ours was a smooth one, but to me, it felt like we were skydiving as we landed in Houston. After gathering our bags and suitcases, we boarded an airport tram (which some of our members thought of as an amusement park ride) to an area where we could board a bus.

In Houston, you quickly learn that getting around mainly requires the use of public transportation. Needless to say, the bus was pretty crowded with more people getting on than off. Unlike Albany, in Downtown Houston, many people walk to get to where they need to go. It helps that everything is packed close together. Another observation: the pigeons are bold and are only concerned about their next meal. After taking a small walk around Downtown Houston and eating at Bombay’s Pizza, we ended our first day in Houston welcoming rest with open arms.

 While awaiting the opening ceremony on Day 2, we decided to visit the Museum of Natural Science to pass the time. Personally, I’d never been to such a detailed and beautiful museum in my life. There was a Native American and an Egyptian artifact exhibit as well as the Death by Natural Causes exhibit where we viewed animals clustered together in forms of art. There was even a gem exhibit full of various, literally blinding (I saw stars) gems that looked too alluring to be real. 

 Now, let’s get to the purpose for our trip. Our pit crew is currently setting up our pit and getting our robot ready for practice matches being held later today. The rest of our team will meet them soon and hopefully get the chance to communicate with some of the numerous robotics teams from all over the world. 

Our robotics team is grateful for a chance to participate in such an amazing event from the performance of our team and our robot at the Georgia competition. We are eternally thankful to our sponsors for supporting our team in everything we do and helping us reach for the stars.

Tune in tomorrow for another entry on our adventures in Houston and Day 1 of the World Robotics Competition.

Kiana Wright is a sophomore who is in her second year at the 4C Academy.  She is in the Information Technology pathway at 4C and has been a robotics team member since its inception.  Ms. Wright is a sophomore at Westover High School and enjoys reading, writing and learning languages.  She has a career aspiration to become a Psychologist.

 

 

 
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