BHS Robotics Team Make Finals in State Championship

Twenty-five students competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge Illinois State Championship held at the Illinois Institute of Technology on Saturday, Dec. 10. 

The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is a national competition sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a non-profit organization designed to inspire students to become science and technology leaders.  The 25 Barrington Students represented two FTC teams, and they competed against 32 other teams from 24 different schools in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

At the Illinois State Championship, each FTC team competed in five separate qualifying rounds throughout the day.  Based on their results at the end of the day, Barrington team 5199 was chosen as an Alliance Partner for the final elimination round.  Their alliance successfully advanced through the semi-finals to reach the finals, where best out of three matches would win the top honors.  In a combination of offensive and defensives moves, the Barrington team aggressively scored points for their alliance that propelled them all the way to the final elimination round.

In addition to receiving an award as a member of the Finalist Alliance, Barrington’s team 5199 also won the prestigious FTC “Think” Award that is given to the team with the most well documented Engineer’s Notebook in the State of Illinois.  In giving the award, the judges indicated how impressed they were with not only the detailed documentation but also the team’s use of advanced physics and mathematics principles that were used to improve the overall performance of their robot.

This is the first year that the after-school robotics program has been offered at Barrington High School. The team is funded by generous contributions from Barrington High School, corporate sponsors, and individuals.  The Barrington Robotics teams are coached by Barrington High School teachers Tom Bredemeier, Kim Fermoyle, and Chris Smith.