VIDEOS: The Robots of the San Angelo Rodeo

The San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo had its very first annual Robotics competition, sponsored by Angelo Sate University and TimeClock Plus yesterday. Children, from 4th through 12th grade, and from all parts of Texas, came to the event to highlight their technology talents. Whether they were a part of the intermediate grades 4^th-8^th, advanced 4^th-8^th, or advanced 9^th-12^th, these robotics wonders had something amazing to show the judges of the competition.

Below, a video of the competition:

During the competition, these student wonders, who constructed and programmed their robots with special software, set into an arena to hopefully sweep all the “batteries and super batteries” to their designated spots. They also deployed the “lightning rod” to get as many points as they can. The intermediate groups had to complete these tasks within two minutes and the advanced groups had to complete the course with one minute.

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While this challenged some of the groups, others grasped it with ease as the robot did exactly what it was programmed to do. Each group competed in two rounds, and the final points were added up in the final round to determine the winners.

The 1^st through 3^rd place winners received a plaque, and the 1^st place teams got an engraved belt buckle. Megan Tarr, Mara Mostad, and Shyla Seaney, from Winters ISD, placed 4^th with 630 points in the intermediate 4-8 grade groups. They are 7^th graders who have competed for just about 2 years. The girls said they love building, programming, and competing for the top.

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Wall High School also had a great day in the advanced 9^th-12^th grade groups. Not only have the teams, The Bran Muffins and The Troopers, already qualified for state, but they also took 1^st and 2^nd in yesterday's competition. The team captain of The Bran Muffins, Sawyer Murphy said he is excited about state, and was happy about yesterday's outcome.

“One thing went wrong today but not to bad,” Sawyer said about the overall competition.

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As a new event at the rodeo, this was an exciting competition that challenged the students and amazed the audience. The tasks these students engaged in are part of the same programming some of the people at NASA utilize. The patterns and sequences are hard to master, but these kids proved up for the challenge.