Scrapper Robotics students qualify for Dallas regional after strong local showing

Students from the Scrapper Robotics team presented their project to the Nashville School District board and described how the Best Robotics competition works: teams receive identical kits, have eight weeks to design and build a robot to match a complex game and are judged on robot performance, an engineering notebook, marketing presentation and trade-show booth.

Denise Robinson, who introduced herself as the team CEO, named teammates Roland Schwoep (COO), Stacy, Natalie and Wyatt Haney and explained the process of building gears, laminating plywood, using a computer-controlled router and debugging designs after early failures. Robinson said the team won second place for their 58-page engineering notebook and placed second in the trade-show booth and finished fourth overall in the Little Rock hub, qualifying them to compete in Dallas against 75 teams from New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Robotics sponsors and board members praised the students' hands-on work. Mister Graham told students, "It's really impressive," and encouraged them as they prepare for the regional competition. Students demonstrated the robot and described troubleshooting center-of-gravity issues and redesign steps taken during the extra retooling period allotted to qualified teams.

The board applauded the students and posed for photos with the team before moving on to the rest of the agenda.