2022-2023 School year
Deming High robotics powers up
Article by Billy Armendariz, Deming Headlight Deming High robotics powers up (demingheadlight.com)
David Wertz is singing praises for students of the Deming High School Robotics Class. These are the same students that use an air cannon to blast free Wildcat T-shirts into the crowd at DHS football games.
Robotics students performed well in area competitions and have set their sights on a FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics event to be held in March at San Antonio. A second robotics event will be held from March into April in Amarillo, Texas. The team attended the FIRST kickoff event on January 7 at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Wertz is the science and robotics teacher at DHS and has seen students use their knowledge and passion for science to compete at a high level.
On Sept. 10 of last year, students participated in the BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) kickoff event at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
“We discovered that our task would be to build a robot that could manipulate robot parts and would then move and assemble the parts on a field robot,” Wertz explained.
The name of the event was “Made to Order.” “We had about six weeks to construct our robot and develop a business plan to market our robot,” Wertz said.
The DHS students were then tasked to manipulate the field robot, named “Squeaky,” and place robot parts in a box in order to fulfill online orders.
Students also came cup with a workable name for its pseudo company, Online Shipping Orders (OSO) and also created promotional items to share with the other teams and judges involved in the BEST competition.
Deming High School’s robotics team stands behind their field robot, Squeaky.
“Students presented their marketing plan via Zoom the week leading into the competition and were awarded third place in the marketing presentation,” Wertz said.
November 12, 2022 was the Game Day event at the NMSU Activities Center. DHS ranked among the top four teams in scoring during the preliminary rounds.
“Our team struggled to maneuver the robot on the field due to ridges in the carpeting,” Wertz said. “The team was able to score enough points to qualify for the semi-final round.”
DHS would barely miss the finals. The consolation for the team was a third-place finish in the BEST competition for the marketing and business presentation portion for the event. This earned the team an opportunity to travel to Frisco, Texas and compete at the Texas BEST Regional.
That event was held Dec. 1-3 of last year. The competitive field included all of the New Mexico BEST Robotics teams and West Texas. There were approximately 75 teams represented.
Deming ranked 32nd after the preliminary rounds. Of the New Mexico teams entered, Deming ranked third.
“Our team also earned an award at the BEST in Texas Regional for the second-best T-shirt design,” Wertz commented.
DHS robotics students continue to practice and meet in order to prepare for the FIRST competition.
At the January UTEP kick-off event, Wertz said the students picked up a kit of parts and discovered the game for this season is titled “Charged Up.”
“We are tasked with picking up some game pieces, a yellow traffic cone, and an inflatable purple tube and placing them in a scoring order and balancing on a ramp called a charging station,” Wertz added.
Students plan to build, wire, and program their robot after school in the DHS robotics room.
Wertz gave a shout-out to supporters of the program. “We would like to thank all of the community members who continue to support the DHS robotics team.”
Billy Armendariz can be reached at bill@demingheadlight.com.
