By SUZANNE GALLIGHER,Contributor
Photos by Brandon Burkhardt
The Vandegrift ViperBots are advancing to regionals – all eight FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams.
Seven ViperBot teams advanced out of the Austin Metro League Championship held Feb. 3 where 46 teams from Austin and the surrounding area competed for one of 12 spots to the Alamo FTC Regional Championship on Feb. 16 – 17 at VHS.
The seven teams that advanced directly to Regionals include ViperBots 4545 Ouroboros, 4546 Snakebyte, 6209 Venom, 6210 Stryke, 7161 Hydra, 11503 HyperFang and 12596 Copperhead. Irad Allen, a ViperBot faculty sponsor, was surprised at this showing, “Seven out out of twelve spots are us. Unbelievable. The first alternate to Regionals is us. We missed it by one spot.”
“It’s been a whirlwind of a ride,” said Alexa Adrian, project manager for the newest ViperBot team, 12596 Copperhead. “We started off at the bottom and now we’re third pick in our winning alliance. I’m really proud of my team. They inspire me to be a better leader every single day. They work harder than any other team I’ve ever been on.”
Teams advance at FTC through both robotic competition on the field and through judged presentations based on various criteria throughout the year. Four of the teams advanced through the competition and three by way of the judged awards.
Kelly Scalpati, Project Manager for 11503 HyperFang, advancing through winning the Motivate award said, “Our team won the Motivate Award (because of) our work with our nonprofit organization that we founded called COINS, which stands for Career Opportunities IN STEM. It’s focus is on helping students gain insight into the world of science, technology, engineering and math. We’re really excited to get that award and we’re looking forward to Regionals.”
An additional nine teams from the AML Championship, including ViperBots 6299 Quad X, advanced to the Wild Card Qualifier on Feb. 10 in San Antonio where they earned their spot at Regionals on the field as a finalist alliance.
4545 Ouroboros
Brianna Navas, Project Manager
Ashiqa Momin
Devin Fink
Emily Yu
Grace Ballengee
Marcus Navas
Michael Tsoi
Navya Janga
Riley Galligher
Timothy Tersigni
Adelaide Johnson, FRC Mentor
Philip Sarkis, FRC Mentor
4546 Snakebyte
Trinh Nguyen, Project Manager
Asha Karmakar
Hemanth Madduri
Landon Palmer
Matthew Wisniewski
Michael Syphrit
Nolan Ward
Raymond Hong
Ruben Ruiz
Victor Le
Natalie Root, FRC Mentor
William Bryan, FRC Mentor
6209 Venom
Rice Province, Project Manager
Bo Deng
Elyssa Padovani
Hamza Ali
Hannah Branstetter
Jackson Roberts
Karthik Chavan
Mikaela McLelan
Ryan Radloff
Stefano Bonilla
Logan Everitt, FRC Mentor
6210 Stryke
Isabel Moring, Project Manager
Caitlyn Clark
David Cox
Grant Kitlowski
Hunter Lee
Jakob Tan
Nihal Kyasa
Paul Clukey
Rohit Chawla
William Fisher
James Hofstadler, FRC Mentor
6299 Quad X
Rebecca Bates, Project Manager
Alexander Tan
Caleb Browne
Cameron Ferweda
Chandler Pryor
Devan Patel
Kiyan Bhalla
Mia Thompson
Ryan Hollaway
Tanvi Siruvuri
Justin Phillips, FRC Mentor
7161 Hydra
Varun Gorti, Project Manager
Abigal Pomerantz
Angela Phan
Avinash Gupta
Evan Deeny
Nicholas Chan
Roslynne Norrod
Samuel Kim
William Gunawan
Cole Ibanez, FRC Mentor
Devan Dholakia, FRC Mentor
Ian Padovani, FRC Mentor
Matthew Kind, FRC Mentor
11503 HyperFang
Kelly Scalpati, Project Manager
Christopher Vallone
Daniel Lee
Ethan Williams
Kendall Cuddy
Matthew Poole
Peter Horvath
Phillip Branca
Shawn Burkhardt
Will Pasquarette
Neil Rathod, FRC Mentor
12596 Copperhead
Alexa Adrian, Project Manager
Adithya Sathyanarayanan
Arvind Venkatesan
Geneva Brown
Jett Chafin
Kylee Adrian
Mohana Chavan
Pierce Lai
Ryley Murakami
Sami Mulpuri
Sophie Polidoro
Adam Busch, FRC Mentor
Gabriel Diaz, FRC Mentor
Sachin Desai, FRC Mentor
Awards:
Alamo FIRST Tech Challenge Wild Card Qualifier
6299 Quad X
Finalist Alliance
Winner Control Award
2nd Inspire Award
Austin Metro League Championship
4545 Ouroboros
2nd Motivate Award
Winner Connect Award
3rd Think Award
3rd Inspire Award
4546 Snakebyte
Winner Think Award
6209 Venom
2nd Control Award
2nd Inspire Award
6210 Stryke
Williams Division Finalist Alliance
Event Finalist Alliance
6299 Quad X
Team Captain, Keller Division Finalist Alliance
3rd Connect Award
7161 Hydra
Keller Division Winning Alliance
Event Winning Alliance
3rd Control Award
Winner Design Award
2nd Rockwell Collins Innovate Award
11503 HyperFang
Williams Division Finalist Alliance
Event Finalist Alliance
Winner Motivate Award
12596 Copperhead
Keller Division Winning Alliance
Event Winning Alliance
Judges Award for Augmented Reality Showcase
The Austin Metro League (AML) Championship Event Winning Alliance – Team Captain 8886 Saber Robotics from St. Gabriel’s Catholic School with ViperBots 7161 Hydra and ViperBots 12596 Copperhead
ViperBots 4546 SnakeByte won the Think Award for removing engineering obstacles through creative thinking.
ViperBots 4545 Ouroboros won the Connect Award for connecting the dots between community, FIRST, and the diversity of the engineering world.
The Austin Metro League (AML) Event Finalist Alliance – Team Captain 4290 LASA High PHidelity with ViperBots 11503 HyperFang and ViperBots 6210 Stryke
ViperBots Quad X advances to Regionals from Wild Card and proudly displays their medals alongside Faculty Sponsors Tamany Wendel and Irad Allen.
ViperBots 6209 Venom won 2nd in Control Award and 2nd in Inspire Award at the Austin Metro League competition.