TMI students' robot judged 'most elegant'

April 7, 2011 - PRLog -- Students of the Robotics Club of TMI – The Episcopal School of Texas received the award for the Most Elegant Robot in the GEAR (Getting Excited About Robots) competition held March 26 at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Team members “worked well with each other to solve challenges and engineer solutions,” said TMI freshman Morgan Garbett, the club’s founding president, who coached students for the competition, which is open only to elementary and middle-school students. The competition’s criterion for the Most Elegant award is “a robot worth recognition that makes the judges say, ‘Wow! That is a neat robot.’”

The competition’s theme was Transfarmers, and the challenge for each team was to program a robot to pick up game pieces representing agricultural products and drop them into a bucket. The TMI robot featured a special attachment in a conveyor-belt assembly.  Team members, all TMI middle-school students, were:  Kathryn Bowen, Hector Castillo, Joaquin Castillo, Jack Chance, Chad Harthan, Elizabeth Holmes, Hollis Leonard, Gerardo Martinez, Juan Pablo Martinez, Nicholas Sandoval, Ian Vaughn, Ryan Vaughn, JuliaGrace Walker and Grayson Walsh.

“We had many students who are new to the team in leadership roles, and they built one of the most ingenious and impressive robots in the field.” said Mason Wright, physics teacher and club sponsor.  “I am very proud of what the team accomplished.”

The TMI Robotics Club also won an SA BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Founder’s Award last year, the club’s first in competition.

Next year, the TMI team will enter the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League Competition, which requires a seven-month commitment to writing and research to prepare for the competition.

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Founded in 1893, TMI is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory school for grades 6-12, with optional Junior ROTC and boarding programs. For information, visit www.tmi-sa.org or call 698-7171.