Auburn High School’s Trojan Robotics, Engineering and Design (TREAD) team captured the Central Washington University FIRST Robotics District competition March 17-18.

Robotic teams from Washington and Oregon competed in this year’s game called Steamworks.

According to Jan Eric, Auburn High teacher and team mentor, robots faced many challenges, ranging from shooting 4-inch balls into a hopper, acquiring and delivering 10-inch gears and grabbing a rope to climb and maintain heights 2 feet off the ground. Robots were placed in teams of three for each of 12 qualification rounds to play against teams of three robots, earning points that ranked them in order of success. At the end of qualification rounds, the eight top-ranked robots selected two partners for elimination rounds.

AHS’s TREAD was selected to join Tahoma’s Bear Metal and Spokane’s Dragons on the No. 1 ranked alliance. The alliance persevered through quarterfinals, semifinals and finals to ultimately win the championship.

The team competes again April 1-2 at Auburn High School, which hosts 35 teams, including Auburn Mountainview’s ROAR Robotics team. The event is open and free to the public. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

About

The mission of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is “to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”