With a whir of the engine and a flash of red paint, the robotics team completed their competition season  at the Regional Robotics Championship in the Dallas Nov. 14-15.

The Robotics Team earned third place in the Boosting Engineering Science and Technology (BEST) competition at Frenship High School earlier in the season. BEST holds a competition every year to develop students’ interest in engineering and robotics.

“It’s not just about the robot, it’s also about presentation,” senior and head engineer Andrew Walsh said. “It’s not just engineering, it contains public speaking skills.”

At the competition, the team used a robot they constructed to complete a certain task.

“These tasks include transporting items across the 24’X12’ course and assembling them, using only a remote control,” said Kolton Burkhalter, senior and president of the Robotics Club. “The challenge is that we are limited to the small amount of supplies provided for us.”

Burkhalter said this year’s competition involved transporting and assembling windmills.

“This must be attempted in three minutes,” Burkhalter said. “We are to deliver ‘windmill nacelles and blades’ to the assembly area by crossing a bridge or a bumpy road.”

Burkhalter said the team also created an exhibit display where they displayed pictures of members, sponsors, the team’s progress, computer drawings and information about the year’s theme.

“Judges then interview some members about the exhibit,” Burkhalter said. “We talk about how our robot is essentially better than the competitors, and we show our budget, company hierarchy and major position, different task groups that members were assigned to complete.”

Walsh said the work they do in class gives them applicable job skills.

“You can graduate school and be number one in your class, but not have life skills,” Walsh said.  “This gives us the skills to get jobs and to just be realistic. That’s what I love about it.”