The Anderson High School Robotics Team—ausTIN CANs—won the Engineering Inspiration Award in the Archimedes Division at the FIRST Robotics World Championship, April 23-26, in St. Louis.

There were three other division winners at the international event, attended by 400 teams.

The Engineering Inspiration Award recognizes “outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering.” 

Team president John McDonald, Nikki Ashtarani and Claire Rowan presented the team's engineering outreach efforts to the judges which include monthly Tech (CAN) Talks; assisting other teams through Texas Robot Roundup, Austin Robot Roundup and VEX tournaments; partnering with National Instruments, Rackspace and 3-Day Startup; and creating a Robot Fashion Show programmed and managed by AHS and Eastside Memorial High School students.

The team also battled in qualifying matches, led by drive team Casey Aldridge, Clay Mullins and Mo Freid, but did not advance to finals.

Other students from the Anderson Robotics team also competed in the VEX World Championship in Anaheim. Anderson VEX team 2158M, consisting of Aaron Penick, Abee Rashid, Matt McDermott and Will Bamberg, was ranked third and made it to finals in the Math division.

Anderson Robotics will be holding two summer camps, from 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. July 21-24 and July 28-31 at the high school for students entering fifth grade through high school. Activities will include designing, building and programming robots, as well as working with quadcopters and humanoid robots. To register, go to: http://www.andersonrobotics.org/camps/

FIRST Robotics Competition is an international robotics competition organized by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in which teams of high school students compete in multiple matches with robots. Game details are announced in early January then teams have six weeks to strategize, design, build and program a competitive robot that can operate autonomously and can be guided by wireless controls. This year’s FRC game, Aerial Assist, was announced Jan 4.

The VEX Robotics Competition is also an international robotics competition organized by the nonprofit Robotics Education and Competition Foundation utilizing the VEX robotic platform. Smaller teams of high school students compete in multiple matches with robots.