Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School’s Robotics and Creative Engineering (R.A.C.E.) Team won the U.S. FIRST South Regional Championship held at the University of Central Florida this past week. Now R.A.C.E. and its allies, North Miami Beach Senior High School and Dillard High School , are going to the nationals in Houston , Texas , on April 10-12.

R.A.C.E. was one of eight teams to make the finals from a field of 41 high school teams from: Florida , Connecticut , Massachusetts , Michigan , Minnesota , Mississippi , South Carolina , Texas , and Puerto Rico . All F.I.R.S.T robots are designed and built in six weeks starting with a basic parts kit. After the six weeks the robot is shipped directly to a regional competition. One day before the competition the team gets the robot for practice rounds and fine tuning. At the end of a competition the robot is then shipped directly to the next competition

In the two-minute, ten-second matches, two teams are randomly allied against two opponents. The robots must travel up and down ramps, stack and topple boxes, defend their side of the playing field, go under bars and hopefully end up on the top of the ramp. Part of this is done under human control and part autonomously by the robot. When the final bell rings, the winning team’s total score totals its score plus 2 times its opponent’s score. Alliances change with each round and are randomly chosen. Krop’s well-built robot and skillful strategy propelled the team through 10 rounds to the quarter-finals. For the final rounds, the Krop team was able to choose its alliance partners, and it selected Team 168, North Miami Beach Senior High School/MAST Academy/Cordis Corp., and team 108 from Broward’s Dillard High School/Taravella High School/Motorola. The three-team alliance won the six final rounds to take the top spot in the competition and secure a place in the national competition. 

R.A.C.E. has been participating in this competition for five years under the guidance of Technology Education Engineering teacher William Baltazar.  What makes this victory unique is that the R.A.C.E. Team accomplished this feat without the expertise or assistance of any major corporate sponsorship.  Each of the other teams had financial assistance and the expertise of their corporate sponsor’s engineers and scientists in the building and construction of their robots. This year’s team is comprised of 40 talented students who team up to develop various components relative to the robot in the Technology Education lab. Utilizing their strengths in the various areas of engineering and related fields, these teams are broken down as follows; Computer Programming, Computer Aided design, mechanical, electronics, and electrical. Then there are those who are skilled at operating (driving) the robot, a team also spearheads marketing, promotions and spirit.