CCISD High School Robonauts Dominate FIRST Competition

May 9, 2005

Students from Clear Creek ISD’s three high schools recently returned from the FIRST Lone Star Regional Tournament as the Regional Chairman’s Award winner, Regional Champion and General Motors Industrial Design Award winner.

Front Row:

Matthew McCann (CBHS), Brent Salbert (CCHS), Kara Boyer (CCHS)

Middle Row:

Amir Premani (CLHS), Auhona Hoq (CBHS), Andrew Dinh (CLHS), Mason Markee (CCHS)

Back Row:

Michael Fernando (CCHS), Faris Virani (CBHS), Josh Kuhn (CCHS), Asim Dholasaniya (CLHS), Gonzalo Villanueva-Meyer (CLHS), Cordero Garcia (CBHS), Ryan Arlitt (CLHS), Lulu Cheng (CCHS)

Not pictured:

Ryan Nye (CCHS), Kirk Simons (CCHS), David Cory (CLHS), Zoheb Noorani (CLHS), Ryan Yeh (CLHS

LEAGUE CITY, Texas—The Clear Creek Independent School District high school robotics team the Robonauts, competing with their robot Chainzilla, returned from the FIRST Lone Star Regional Tournament as the Regional Chairman’s Award winner, Regional Champion and General Motors Industrial Design Award winner. The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics team is made up of students from Clear Brook, Clear Creek and Clear Lake High Schools.

This is the second time the Robonauts have won a Regional Chairman’s Award, the first time being in 2003. The Chairman’s Award represents the spirit of FIRST. This award honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and which embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST. The Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious team award FIRST presents.

Clear Creek ISD, NASA-JSC, and Lockheed Martin have teamed together for nine years to sponsor the Robonauts, also known as Team 118. Under the leadership of Lucien Junkin (NASA-JSC) and Terry Brandhorst (CCISD) this year’s students, mentors, and teachers began working in early January to prepare for the 2005 FIRST Robotics competition. Teams have had six weeks to design and build their robots for the 2005 game, Triple Play.

In addition to the team’s success, Auhona Hoq, senior at Clear Brook High School, was the recipient of a $5,000 scholarship from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Junkin who is the lead mentor engineer and coach for the Robonauts received the Regional Woodie Flowers Award. This award, based on nominations from students, is given to an outstanding engineer or teacher who best demonstrates excellence in teaching science, math, and creative design.

During the Lone Star Regional, Team 118 was the 1st place qualifying team going into the finals. The Robonauts selected Team 231 from Pasadena, TX and Team 499 from San Antonio, TX to form the alliance that then went on to win as Regional Champions. The consistent performance of Team 118 was evident in their overall 15-1-0 win-loss-tie record. This consistent performance also aided Team 118 in winning the General Motors Industrial Design Award. This award celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively achieves the game challenge.

Through their tremendous success, the Robonauts have qualified to compete at the Championship Event to be held April 21 – 23 in Atlanta, GA. From the approximately 300 teams from around the world competing at the Championship Event, Team 118 will be one of only thirty teams eligible to win the Chairman’s Award. Likewise, Junkin will be one of thirty engineers/teachers eligible to win the Woodie Flowers Award. More information on the Championship Event can be found at www.usfirst.org/robotics.

Source: CCISD

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