Mason Team 5029 PowerStackers, a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Dayton/Cincinnati robotics team, is on its way to the FTC World Championship tournament for the second year in a row, while the MCS FTC Robotics Team 8719 Quantum Leap also advanced to the 2019 FIRST World Championship.
Team 5029 and 8719 will both compete on the world stage at the Detroit Cobo Center April 24-27.
Team PowerStackers spans across the Dayton/Cincinnati area with fourteen student members in seventh through twelfth grades. Six of these students are from Mason High School: Lakshmi Avanthsa, Vishnu Avanthsa, Neev Gupt, Rayhan Nazir, Kaavya Ramachandhran, and Brandon Young.
Team Powerstackers has existed for 14 years. This year will mark their fourth time competing at the international level, and their second consecutive year at the World Championship. This season alone, Powerstackers has hosted over 80 regional events, and outreached to almost 100,000 people. Their commitment to their community has earned them the title of Ohio FIRST Ambassador, a regional Motivate Award (first place), and the coveted Inspire Award (first place) at the State Tournament for Ohio.
Team Quantum Leap is a fifth-year veteran FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team that consists of students from both MHS and Mason Middle School, including juniors Arnav Komaragiri and Michael Valcarce, sophomores Shankar Kalavakolanu and Shyam Sekar, and eighth-grader Eashan Vytla.
Team Quantum Leap earned their advancement by competing in the FTC Ohio State Championship on February 23rd at Loveland High School by winning numerous awards including second place Inspire Award (Most prestigious award), first place Think Award, and second place Control Award. The team went 4 -1 in the qualifying rounds earning them second place among the top 36 teams from Ohio. The team also registered the highest score in the state with their alliance partners in semifinals with a score of 417 points. Prior to the FTC Ohio State Championship, Quantum Leap has been very successful in the 2018-2019 season winning 3 regional qualifying tournaments in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Team 8719 is currently ranked top 40 out of 2500+ teams.
Members of the robotics team Scientific Touch finished their 2018-19 season ranked 15 out of 36 teams at the FTC Ohio State Championship as well.
MHS freshman Veena Ganti, MMS eighth graders Adithya Deepak, Nihar Kodkani, Nithya Kothnur, Nikil Prabhakar, and Surya Suresh, MMS seventh grader Vindhya Ganti, and Mason Intermediate sixth grader Shreya Kothnur are the Mason City Schools members. Team Scientific Touch won the INSPIRE Award at the Newark Qualifying tournament on Feb 9 and was selected to participate in the state tournament. Scientific Touch participated in three qualifying tournaments this season and won multiple awards.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a non-profit organization that introduces families and children of all ages to the world of STEM. FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is one of four robotics programs offered to kids ages 6 to 18: FIRST Robotics Challenge, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Lego League, and Jr. FIRST Lego League. With each new season comes a new set of obstacles and gameplay mechanisms. Every team builds and programs a robot in response to the challenge, then competes in several high-energy tournaments. In addition to building and programming, students learn to work as a team, develop Gracious Professionalism (good sportsmanship), hone their business skills, and become adept at the presentation of their ideas.