Warren High robotics goes national

DOWNEY - Warren High School's robotics team came home with two trophies after traveling to Phoenix to compete in the Central Arizona Vex Competition. Warren High had a repeat performance from Las Vegas, winning first place and being crowned tournament champions.

They also won the Design Award for most technically challenging robots.

The engineering design team of Mulan MacDougall, Matt Pacheco and Michelle Tulean were also selected to compete in the finals of the Conrad Spirit of Innovation contest. As finalists, they will present their design to a panel of experts from the engineering and business worlds at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Scheduled for April 10-13, they will compete against teams from across the nation and eight international teams. Grand prize is a $10,000 grant to produce their design.

In addition to the Conrad design contest, Warren has four robotics teams competing in the semifinals of the NASA Engineering Design Challenge, where teams design parts for the James Webb Telescope.

"This is quite an accomplishment considering only 20 teams are selected nationwide, so Warren is representing 20 percent of the semi-finalists," said principal John Harris. "Hopefully we can make the finals where they will travel to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland."

Warren has teams in each of the two design categories making for the possibility of a Warren sweep of the contest.

********** Published: February 21, 2013 - Volume 11 - Issue 45