MHS Students' Robotics Team Scores 7th Highest in World: "Quantum Leap" to Compete in State

It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get. Under strict rules, limited resources, and an intense six-week time limit, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team "brand," hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors.

Mason High School freshmen Shankar Kalavalolanu and Shyam Sekar, sophomores Arnav Komaragiri and Michael Valcarcel and student mentor and senior Keerthi Sekar formed robotics team Quantum Leap - which came away with top honors at the Cincinnati Regional Qualifying FIRST Robotics Competition January 26-27. Team Quantum Leap advances to the Ohio State Championship on February 17, at iSPACE Scarlet Oaks campus in Sharonville, and scored the seventh highest score in the world with their alliance.

“We qualified for the Ohio State Championship and scored 473 points in a match! This is our second year in a row to advance to the State Championships,” said Keerthi Sekar.

The team also won several other impressive awards.

• 3rd Place Winner of the Inspire Award - This award is given to the team that truly embodies the ‘challenge’ of the FIRST® Tech Challenge program. The team that receives this award is a strong ambassador for FIRST  programs and a role model FIRST Tech Challenge team.
• Winner of the Control Award - This award is given to the team that demonstrates innovative thinking in the control system to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, enhancing mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results on the field.
• Winner of the Promote Award - The Promote Award is given to the team that is most successful in creating a compelling video message for the public designed to change our culture and celebrate science, technology, engineering and math.