Last month, the Highlands Intermediate School (HIS) Robotics Team traveled to Dallas, Texas to compete in the 2010 VEX Robotics Competition World Championships held at the Dallas Convention Center from April 22-24. After three days of competition, the HIS Robotics Team earned the overall Excellence Award at the World Championships. They also won the "Think Award" in their division and placed third in the Programming Skills Challenge.
Photo provided by Highlands Intermediate School Robotics Team
Highlands Intermediate School (HIS) Robotics Team receiving their Excellence Award at the 2010 VEX Robotics Competition World Championships held at the Dallas Convention Center from April 22-24.
The World Championships comprised of teams from middle school, high school and colleges in 14 countries. There were four divisions with about a one hundred teams in each division. They competed in nine qualifying matches for each division. Rankings were decided through the nine match performances. The HIS Robotics Team were ranked undefeated in their division.
"We didn't win outright, but because we were high in all three categories they gave us the highest award which was the Excellence Award," said HIS Robotics Team Advisor, Ms.Joan Okai.
The top eight in each division chose an alliance, two other teams to be part of their group. The teams entered into an elimination round. The HIS Robotics Team was a finalists in the elimination round along with an alliance that included Waialua High School.
"What was really nice was that in those four divisions, three of them had a total of four Hawaii teams that made the championship elimination", said Okai. "The top two finalists from our division, the top two from the second one and the top two from the third and fourth, those eight alliances met up and that became the world champion."
The HIS Robotics Team was defeated by Waialua High School's alliance in the quarterfinals. The four teams representing Hawaii in the championship elimination were: McKinley, Waialua, Campbell and Highlands Intermediate.
Photo provided by Highlands Intermediate School Robotics Team
HIS Robotics and alliance team (far right) competing in the Clean Sweep competition qualifying round.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
HIS Robotics Team pictured with awards in their robotics laboratory / classroom.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
2009-2010 HIS Robotics Team Championship Trophies and Awards.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
HIS Robotics Team Advisor/Teacher, Ms. Joan Okai (second from left) pictured in her robotics classroom with her students.
Here are the 2009-2010 HIS Robotics Team members:
Casey, Katelyn, Christianne, Errol, Glenn, Lyla, Madison, Brandi, Marissa, Kimberly, Carolyn and Advisor/Teacher, Ms. Joan Okai.
MyPearlCity.com would like to congratulate Ms. Joan Okai for her inspiration and dedication to the Highlands Intermediate School Robotics Program and to her exceptional "award winning" robotics student engineers and programmers.
Ms. Okai has taught her students to think, work and perform as a team. Even though not all of the HIS Robotics Team members were able to make the trip to the World Championships in Dallas, they all worked together in preparation for the competition on the mainland. The team qualified for the 2010 VEX Robotics Competition World Championships after winning Hawaii State Competitions earlier in the year.
" I think to get to the competitions we really needed to work together because this is a team effort and you can't make it there by yourself. I also think we really had to think out of the box for this type of thing. Sometimes you need to be original," said HIS Robotics Team member, Christianne.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
2010 Hawaii State Botball Robotics Tournament Awards showcased at HIS.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
HIS Robotics Team competition robots. Botball robots (front), VEX robot (back).
MyPearlCity.com approached Highlands Intermediate School Principal, Mrs. Amy Martinson earlier in the school year offering financial support for the HIS Robotics Program. A $1000.00 check was presented to Ms. Okai to help out her program.
"We have to constantly upgrade our robots. We participated last year and they actually made it wireless so we had to have a wireless part to the brain that you had to add. Everything adds up, that's why we really appreciate your donation," said Okai.
MyPearlCity.com and Pearl City Shopping Center owner, Mr. Duane Kurisu is committed to giving back to the community through his companies donations and volunteer contributions to the Pearl City Complex Area Schools.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
MyPearlCity.com and other sponsors help support the HIS Robotics Program throughout the school year.