The Blanket High School robotics team placed third at the TCEA State Robotics Tournament. The tournament includes schools 1A-6A. Blanket’s high school robotics team has only three students: Amber Waller, senior, Mariela Menchaca, junior, and Joshua Smith, sophomore.
The last member of the team is Alphonso, or “Alphi,” the team’s robot.
Their coach is George Dudley. Dudley is also the teacher for Yearbook, Technology, PowerPoint, Speech some years, UIL Coordinator, and also a Bus Driver at Blanket ISD.
“We want our kids to be able to compete in the world when they graduate and know a little bit more about technology than what we have been able to offer in the past,” said Dudley.
Dudley hopes to advance those technology skills as times are changing and technology is becoming the dominant platform with which we all associate.
In addition to winning 3rd at the state tournament, Blanket’s robotics team has had past victories.
In January, at the San Angelo Area robotics meet, the students took home third place. That tournament qualified them for state. In February, at the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo, the team won first place in robotics.
The program focuses on creating a robot from a robotics standard Lego kit. The students create a code with an iPad or laptop to program into the robot. A preset program is for a match that is 30 seconds. Or they use a gaming controller to direct the robot in a match that is 90 seconds.
These tournaments are very fast paced. The goal of the robot is to gather as many pieces on the board within time and position them in the “safe zone.” While it looks easy, it is a very strict and technical process according to the students.
The students said the program is teaching them problem solving and collaboration. These technology classes and robotics programs are forcing students to critically think and use people skills.
“I really like the problem solving that you have to do on the floor. If something goes wrong, you have to think of something really fast to solve it or get points back if you mess something up. You also have to work with other teams,” said Waller.
Each member has a unique role and hers is the point person. Waller meets with other teams and scouts’ potential allies at the tournament.
“Winning. I like winning,” said Menchaca. “I like that you have to think, because there is always something wrong.” Menchaca is the only one on the team allowed to place “Alphi” on the board. This is in the tournament rules that only one person on the team can touch the robot.
Smith is the team’s coder. “We build it here, and then we take it there, and then all the coding is set on an iPad.”
For Waller and Menchaca, both of their brothers have done robotics programs. Watching their brothers, it piqued their interests, and they dove into the program. Smith had a different reason. “I’ve always had a love for computers and coding,” Smith said.
The sophomore hopes to study computer science at McMurry. Waller is attending Texas Tech in the fall studying political science.
This is Blanket’s first year to have a robotics team. The robotics program came through a grant and Dudley hopes to secure more funds for future. Programs such as Esports, drones, and 3D printing, are all in the works.
Dudley has more plans for the robotics team after a successful year. “I am looking at VEX robotics. What I am understanding they are trying to make it so that that becomes a UIL event. I am working on a grant as well to get some VEX robots,” said Dudley. “My plan is to have that in place before school is out this year.”
[Story by Jacob Lehrer]