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The more than 30 members of the Rutherford County Schools' Omegabytes - Robotics Team 5727 and their coaches, parents and others are in Houston, Texas today for the World Championship competition that ends on Saturday, April 22. The team is the only team from Western North Carolina at the World Championship and is ranked 5th in the State.
Danny Smith, instructional technology facilitator for the Rutherford County Schools, leads the team along with other coaches and mentors.
The team includes high school students and is based at the Rutherford Early College High School (REaCH). Theywon the Impact award at NC District Championships given to the team that has shown the greatest impact in their community.
"We are the first team to ever win it two years in a row," said Smith. "We are also the only Western NC team to qualify for Worlds as most of the teams are from the research triangle and Charlotte."
Smith thanks all the partners that helped get the Omegabytes where they are today.
From their two regional competitions of the season in Asheville and Charlotte, theOmegabytes robotics team advanced to the FIRST North Carolina State Championship, earning a place in world competition at the FIRST Championship for the second consecutive year.
FIRST Robotics is a global nonprofit organization that prepares youth for the future through an international program of robotics competitions for various age levels. The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is the high school level of competition, in which teams design and build industrial-grade robots for large-scale field competition. The organization's competition season runs from January through April and begins with district events and advances through state and international levels of competition. Teams accrue points from both field competition and various awards, including the FIRST organization's highest award, the Impact Award. Teams are then ranked based on accrued points.
Having advanced to FIRST North Carolina state finals, the Omegabytes traveled to East Carolina University from March 31 to April 2 to compete for the state championship in field competition and for the state-level Impact Award. The Omegabytes earned their spot in the state finals through regional field competition points and points garnered from receiving the regional Impact Award at the Charlotte event as well as the Industrial Design Award at the Asheville event.
Brad Silver, final assembly engineering manager at Continental in Morganton which employs two Omegabytes alumni, says, "The Omegabytes robotics program atREaCH has become the premier avenue to developing quality young men and women for highly technical careers. They have set a very high standard and are the local benchmark in our area."
Members of the team are: co-captains Gracie Allred and Emily Waters; Fletcher Baccus, Morgan Beheler Ryan Bennett, Fern Bomar, Jonas Conner, Josie Conner, Amaka Eneorji, Alissa Griffin, Chayden Hardin, Mackenzie Hernandez, Skyland Hoyle, Casey Lyda, Alex Lescarbeau, William Mathes, Jack McBrayer, Jimmy McCosker, Natalie McDaniel, Tony McKinney, Ian McMillan, Andrea Narvaez-Santos, Matthew O'Steen, Arabella Philbeck, Landen Proctor, Axl Pulley, Isaac Roof, Peter Tran, Bryant Thomas, Emily Waters and Carleigh Williams.
The road to Texas...
On the state level the Omegabytes and their robot performed well and advanced from a field of 41 teams to be among 12 teams in the semifinals. The team's resulting field competition ranking of 8th of the 41 teams made them the only team from west of Charlotte and the only rural team to make the top 10 in state finals field competition.
The team achieved yet another milestone by winning the state Impact Award for the second consecutive year to become one of the few. This follows last year's rare win as a first-time competitor for the prestigious award, which is described by the FIRST organization as follows: "The FIRST Impact Award is the most prestigious award at FIRST; it honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. It was created to keep the central focus of FIRST Robotics Competition on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encourage more of today's youth to become science and technology leaders."
The team wrapped up the FIRST North Carolina season ranked 5th out of the 89 FIRST North Carolina teams.
Overall season FIRST North Carolina ranking is based on teams' combined field competition and award points from all events. The REaCH Omegabytes' points from field competition, regional- and state-level Impact Awards, and a regional Industrial Design Award earned them this ranking and the distinction of being the only rural, western North Carolina team among the state's top ten. The team shares the top 10 spots with six teams from the Research Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill and one team each from Greensboro, Charlotte, and Greenville.
The team's motto is "We're not just building robots . . . we're building lives."
