The Most Innovative Robot!

Morganton MADE Competition

Each year, an engineering challenge is issued to middle and high school students throughout Burke County. Area schools come together, uniting with a common goal and excitement around innovation, to participate in the Morganton Arts, Design, and Engineering (MADE) challenge. This year's challenge was entitled Rescue Robot. Students had to design a robot that could travel through a two-level course collecting items at various point values. After designing, building, and testing their robot over the past few months at school, the MDS team was ready for competition.

Last Friday morning, Ethan, Jack, Will, and Rocco arrived downtown at the official competition tents ready for a day of engineering. Led by their energetic, fearless coach, Mr. Joyner, they began to make final adjustments to their robot. Throughout the day, they learned a very important aspect of engineering and that is thinking and problem-solving issues that arise even after the best preparation. These MDS students worked seamlessly as a team to problem solve technical challenges.

As they participated in trial runs, they had to figure out how to balance the bot so it didn't tip as the claw moved up and down retrieving objects of various weights. They had to fix a broken axel and determine ways to make the robot more sturdy without making it too heavy. As the young engineers navigated the course during the actual timed event, their claws unexpectedly stopped working. Like a pit crew, they combined efforts and within a three-minute time limit, solved the problem to get their robot back on the course. Each team member had a job to do and with wonderful communication skills, they worked together to retrieve the items. At the end of the day, the MDS team won the most innovative robot, but more importantly, they walked away with life-long skills and fun memories.

Way to go Titans!