On Saturday, the Central Catholic Iron Fangs Robotics team were among hundreds of students taking part in the FIRST Robotics Competition’s Alamo Regional challenge at the Convention Center. FIRST is an acronym that stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

Varsity teams were given six weeks to design and build a robot capable of competing in the FIRST Stronghold event. The competition took place on a long field spanning 27 feet by 54 feet. To score, a robot had to breach an opponent’s defense, cross an obstacle course of sorts and shoot dodgeballs known as “boulders” into a tall tower.

For the first 15 seconds of each match, the robots moved autonomously, without being guided by people. For the remaining two minutes and 15 seconds, student drivers positioned at each end of the field operated the robots by remote control.

The robots built by these student are quite complex, with a multitude of moving parts, batteries, switches, and wires. With that much involved, things can go wrong. The team was able to successfully work through several technical challenges during the three day competition. After pinpointing and fixing a technical issue with their robot, the team felt an enormous sense of satisfaction. As team member Brandon Bonham put it: “I don’t think it would have felt this good if it had worked right the first time.”