CASPER – Sublette County 4H’s Velocity Bandits First Tech Challenge robotics team recently competed at the Wyoming FTC Championships in Casper. The 10-member team includes John Covill (captain), Grant Fornstrom (secretary), Jacob Johnson, Zayne McClain, Jackson Harber, Tim Hosler, Holden Saxton, Dillon Boespflug, Hayden Jett and Isie McLoughlin (teen mentor) spent Friday afternoons from September through February in the 4H robot lab.

The team robot, Borris, was engineered to perform a variety of tasks, including picking up balls, throwing balls for points, and using color sensors to recognize and capture light beacons.
Unfortunately, Borris malfunctioned in the third round of the tournament, leading to a 19th-place finish out of 33 teams.
The team greatly appreciated the programming assistance provided by Andy and Ethan Adkins, Big Piney High School Robotics and Jackson Hole Middle School Robotics. The team is coached by Sandra McLoughlin and funded by a grant from Sublette BOCES and though the Sublette County 4-H program.
First Tech Challenge teams are challenged to design, build, program and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format. Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills and practice engineering principles (like keeping an engineering notebook), while realizing the value of hard work, innovation and sharing ideas. n