Fitch robotics wins Engineering Inspiration award in New York

By JESSICA HARKER

jharker@vindy.com

Members of the Austintown Robotics team competed in the Rochester, N.Y. on March 17, taking home the Engineering Inspiration award.

According to team mentor Andy Yantes, the victory qualified Falco Tech 3193 for the World Championship tournament in April.

“The award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community,” Yantes said.

The tournament, titled the Finger Lakes Regional, was a national qualifying tournament.

The award’s focus is unique, being more about the community outreach portion of the program than the physical building of the robot.

“The guidelines are that there is a commitment to science and technology education among the team, school and community,” Yantes said. “The team must achieve the FIRST mission and show an ability to communicate that at the competition and away from it.”

The team must also have a continuous effort to recruit students to engineering and prove successful in this regard.

“The efforts must be ongoing, not strictly concentrated on the build and competition season,” Yantes said.

The team will compete in the World Championship tournament later this year.

“We are very proud of all of the hard work the students have put in,” Yantes said.