Ferris High School hosts First Tech Challenge

FERRIS – About 150 students converged on the Ferris High School this past weekend ranging in ages from Middle School to High School grades 6 to 12.

It may be some of the brightest minds in our youth, since students were there for a Tech Challenge known as First Robotics.

“First Robotics has been around,” said T.J. Knight, deputy superintendent, Ferris Independent School District.

“Ferris ISD just started having robotics teams over the last few years. We keep doing well in the competitions and we keep expanding the number of teams.”

There was even a robotics team added at the Intermediate level at Ferris ISD this year. That group, however, competes in a different competition and did not compete over the weekend.

“Our students start learning about robotics in 4th grade,” Knight said.

Eric Evans, M.Ed., Teacher: CTE – STEM at Ferris High School explained the Robotics event in Ferris was in relation to teams from the North Texas Region of FIRST Tech Challenge.

Teams compete from September through very early February for a chance to advance to the NTX-US Regional Tournament.

While no Ferris teams competed in the event over the weekend since they compete in a different structure, one of the high school teams has already secured an advancement to the NTX-US Regional Tournament. The teams that were at the event were qualifying to advance and were all competing in up to two qualifying tournaments.

“Ferris High School hosted one of those qualifying events and it was officially named the “Ferris Brickyard Qualifier at Ferris High School,” Evans said.

There were 29 teams registered with an average of 11 participants per team and an average of two coaches/mentors per team at the weekend event. The event was free and open to the public with a variety of programs going on throughout the day.

Various awards were given out in different categories and judges ranged from teachers to executives to university staff to police officers. Judges were broken up into referees and inspectors.

Evans said “The referees are responsible for tracking scoring during the individual game matches along with identifying and assessing penalties… the inspectors are broken into two different roles. We have robot inspectors who ensure the robots conform to the rules and guidelines established by FIRST for the game that is being played. We also have field inspectors who ensure that the robot is safe to compete on the field during competition.”

This particular event came about out of giving the FIRST Tech Challenge Affiliate Partner for North Texas, Dr. Patrick Michaud of UT Dallas, a tour of the Ferris High School facilities when they hosted an off-season “for-fun” blacklight robotics tournament in the Spring of 2018.

During that tour, Dr. Michaud commented the facilities would be great for hosting a much larger event such as a qualifier tournament.

Evans said in all this was a challenging event to pull together, but they have heard nothing but positive feedback from everyone involved.

As for what students are walking away with after being involved in the first Tech Challenge, Knight said the majority of what they learn was not really about the robot.

“Many learn how to work together with a group to accomplish a complex task,” he said. “They develop and expand their communication skills; problem solving, creativity, and collaboration.

“The engineering, coding, and actual robotics seems to be a bit of a byproduct of their successful work.”