FVHS’s Slice Robotics won first place in the qualification phase of their tournament, which was a Wake County District event, on March 17. They won with their robot the S.S. Squeeze, which is sort of like a ladder on wheels. The S.S. Squeeze is a semi-autonomous robot which means it has a degree of self-government, so the robot could move on its own without a remote. Slice also won the Industrial Design award.
The Slice Robotics club works to get students into robotics whether it be by designing, coding, training, or the business side of the industry. Slice stands for Serve, Leaders, Innovate, Community and Excellence. The robots work in mini games where they launch balls into a basket and place things on tubes of varying heights.
Senior Evan Kruger, the engineering captain of Slice, said, “We accomplished this by using our extensive knowledge of each aspect of robot development to develop an efficient, reliable, semi-autonomous robot capable of outperforming almost every other team at the event.”
Slice is well known for their work. They go to competitions on weekends to showcase their robots. Slice is also a part of FIRST Robotics’s competitions. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a global organization for robotics that helps students learn how to work in STEM.
Kruger said, “I enjoy Slice because it gives me engineering, leadership and social experience, all in a competitive environment without being cutthroat. The competitions are also just as exciting, if not more, than most sports, meaning it is easier to recruit members and raise funds than if it were a more obscure project. All in all, FIRST Robotics is an experience unrivaled by any other high school opportunity anywhere.”
On March 22-23, Slice Robotics competed at a Mecklenburg County district event, where they won first place. They are now qualified for the North Carolina State Championships in Greensboro, which is two weeks from now.
“For our event this weekend, we made adjustments to our game piece acquisition and continued to improve our automation in an effort to be competitive against a team from Western NC, who is currently top 20 in the world,” said Kruger.
