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ISD ‘FBI’ Ready to Solve the Mystery of ‘Recycle Rush’

Posted March 12, 2015

robot 2With a berth in the nationals on the line, the FIRST Bots of Independence (FBI) Robotics Team is participating in the Kansas City Regional Robotics Competition March 13-14 on the MCC Business and Technology Campus (1775 Universal Ave.). Students from all three ISD high schools built Marie, the ISD robot, to play Recycle Rush.

Recycle Rush is a game where the robot has to pick up and stack recycling totes and barrels,” said Lisa Randolph, Van Horn’s robotics adviser. “Marie uses a guillotine-looking feature to do the lifting and stacking.”

FBI is one of 54 teams in the weekend competition. Matches are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day inside the campus conference center and FBI– Team 1723- has a match about every 45 minutes. Randolph said the FBI team really deserved a pat on the back for their hard work.

“Students spent an average of 100 hours each in the past two months, meeting six days a week at Chrisman designing and building Marie,” she said. Randolph thanked the ISD and team sponsors The KC STEM Alliance, Honeywell, Cerner and A & E Custom Manufacturing. Now, she said, it’s time to play!

“The matches are fun and the students are geeked to compete,” Randolph said. “FBI would love to see everyone come out and see what we can do.”

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics was founded more than 25 years ago to inspire student interest and participation in science and technology.

FBI team members are:

Chrisman: Aimee Dietker, David Bogue, Alisha Diman, Michaela Ebert, William Elliott, Rachel Ketchum, Madeliene Lyons, Nichole Ginnings, Ian Coburn, Kaitlyn Waage, Ashlyn Messer.

Truman:  Jacqueline Stock, Cailyn Crowley, Eli Freeman, Griffen Leakey, Stevon Sickles, Renan Troy, Remy Mathena, Michael Morash, Yvette Rito, Lauren Connor, Skylar Fulton, Shelby Fordham.

Van Horn:  Destany Williamson, Nathan Fikes.