McCutchen robotics team honored after state title at Tippecanoe School Corp. meeting

The Tippecanoe School Corp. board recognized McCutchen High Schools Maverick Robotics team during its regular meeting, where students presented a demonstration of the robot and described the teams season and operations.

Students Grayson Wallace, Josh Lur and Elliot Mannon introduced themselves and said the team, registered as Maverick Robotics team 4272, was established in 2012, fields about 22 students and relies on roughly 12 mentors and a large parent volunteer group. Wallace said the team travels to regional events and this year won the state competition and competed at the world championships, finishing 40th out of 76 teams.

The students explained the match format (20 seconds of autonomous operation followed by 2 minutes, 20 seconds of driver control), described this years scoring objective (moving yellow "fuel" balls into a hub) and answered technical questions about their robot. One student said the robot uses CAN buses for motor control and the team reduced CAN failures by splitting controllers; the students estimated the robot uses about 18 motors.

Mentors and students credited experienced mentors and committed students for the teams success. The team ran a short demonstration of a tiebreaker routine and the board and audience invited the students forward for photos. Meeting discussion noted the world-robot is on display in the district engineering wing and the team intends to participate in offseason competitions, including a Purdue event in July.

The presentation highlighted the schools extracurricular STEM programming, mentor-supported continuity and the substantial out-of-class time students invest in robotics.