At the February 3 Louisiana FIRST® Technical Challenge (FTC) Regional Championship held at University of New Orleans, St. Mary’s Dominican High School’s two robotics teams competed. The Dominican Indiana Janes were a finalist for the Think Award. The Dominican Valkyries won the Motivate Award and placed 8th for the Alliance Section. They were selected by an Alliance Team to play in the semi-finals. Dominican Robotics coaches are Matthew Foss, Crissy Giacona, and Madelyn Maldonado.

The Dominican Indiana Jones

The Dominican Valkyries

The Think Award is a judged award given to the team that best reflects the journey the team took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season. The Engineering section of the notebook is the key reference for judges to help identify the most deserving team. The team’s engineering section must focus on the design and build stage of the team’s robot. Journal entries must include descriptions of the underlying science and mathematics of the robot design and game strategies, the designs, redesigns, successes, and opportunities for improvement. Teams must complete the engineering section of the Engineering Notebook in order to be considered for the award.

Sparking others to embrace the culture of FIRST, the team given the Motivate Award embraces the culture of FIRST and clearly shows what it means to be a team. This judged award celebrates the team that represents the essence of the FTC competition through team building, team spirit and displayed enthusiasm. It recognizes a team that makes a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community, and sparks others to embrace the culture of FIRST.