WHAT A WEEKEND! The hard work paid off.  We won the Chairman’s Award, and now ranked 2nd in the FIRST Mid-Atlantic region overall – locked in to qualify for District Championship at Lehigh PA, and only a few District points away from WORLDS Championship!!!!





About 2,000 high school students from 45 FIRST FRC Robotics Competition teams participated in a spectacular event that took place on March 10th and 11th, at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, Bridgewater, NJ. We, the “MidKnight Inventors” won the Chairman’s Award, and Silver medal in the competition.


The Chairman’s Award is the highest honor given at the FIRST Championship to FIRST Robotics Competition Teams, recognizing the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. It was created to keep the central focus of FIRST Robotics Competition on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become scientists, engineers, and technologists.


This event was the fourth in a series of five MAR Mid-Atlantic Robotics FIRST events. FIRST, an acronym for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” is a national program that promotes youth interest in science and technology. Dean Kamen, entrepreneur and inventor of the Segway human transporter and insulin-pump technology, founded the program in 1989.


The theme of this year’s district tournament is “FIRST Power Up”. My FRC team “Midknight Inventors”, had six weeks to build robots 5-feet tall and weighing more than 120 pounds to compete on fields the size of a basketball half-court.


This year’s challenge in initial rounds calls for Robots to collect Power Cubes and place them on Plates to control Switches or the Scale. When the Scale or their Switch is tipped in their favor, it is considered owned by that Alliance. Robots deliver Power Cubes to their humans who then place them into the Vault earning the Alliance Power Ups. Alliances use Power Ups to gain a temporary advantage during the Match. There are three Power Ups available to teams: Force, Boost, and Levitate. Robots Climb the Scale to earn bonus points. Each match begins with a 15-second Autonomous period in which Robots operate only on pre- programmed instructions. During this period, Robots work to support the three efforts listed above as well as earn points for crossing their Auto Line.


After playing in a series of qualification matches, each team is ranked based on the number of points scored and number of matches won. The top eight teams then choose their alliance partners for the elimination matches, played in a tournament style. Our alliance scored 314 points earning the second place in the tournament of 45 seasoned teams.


FRC teams are the highest level of FIRST robotics programs. Applying math and science concepts, teamwork and strategic problem-solving skills, these robotics teams are as close to “real-world engineering” as students can get. Teams earned points based on their performance at this district event based on match wins, selection order and awards. Students interested in pursuing degrees and careers in the STEM fields—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math—earn college scholarships and top point-earning teams will advance to the FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas in April.


These spectator-friendly competitions are created with the feel of both a major sporting event and a rock concert complete with energetic announcers hyping up games with team introductions, cheering fans, crazy costumes, special lighting, up-beat music and a large video wall. Mascots and fans have cheers that rival their school cheerleading squads to get on the big screen and videos that are streamed live on FIRST web pages.


It was a phenomenal robotics championship game, and quite memorable. Now, getting ready for the next competition at Lehigh University, PA.