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EOU hosts regional robotics tournament, awards scholarships to winning team

Story and photos by Laura Hancock | Media and Publications Writer
University Advancement | lhancock@eou.edu

La Grande, Oregon – The dream of going to college became a reality over the weekend for six local high school students.

Chris Fasel, a freshman from Union High
School and member of the Starbots team,
watches with anticipation as his robot
moves across the table.

A team from Union High School, Rock ‘N Rowbots, walked away with the Directors Award for their performance in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League Regional Robotics Tournament at Eastern Oregon University on Sunday.

The blue ribbon prize for the team came in the form of six full-ride scholarships to EOU. The scholarships will be awarded to each student upon completion of their high school diplomas with good academic standing.

Eastern’s tournament is one of 13 held across the state in December and is funded in part by the Oregon Robotics Tournament and Outreach Program.

“This program fans the fire, helping to get kids interested in technology,” said Richard Croft, associate professor of computer science and multimedia at EOU.

Croft and a host of EOU faculty and student volunteers worked tirelessly to make the event a success for the second year in row. The theme this year, “Ocean Odyssey,” required students to build robots and then program them to perform water-related tasks such as retrieving an artifact from a sunken vessel, or releasing a captured dolphin from a sling.

Teams from all over eastern Oregon competed in the second annual FIRST LEGO League Regional Robotics Tournament at EOU in the Badgley Hall atrium on Sunday, Dec. 4. Rock'N Rowbots took home the first-place prize. All six team members received full-ride scholarships to EOU.

Twelve teams of students, ages 9-14, from schools across eastern Oregon met in the Badgley Science Center atrium on Sunday morning, ready with their robots. Onlookers peered down from the balcony above, trying to catch a bird’s eye view of the action below.

A table with detailed props simulating underwater pump stations, shipping containers, submarines, and even fish, set the stage for the tournament. Nearly 900 LEGO pieces were used to assemble all of the props.

“There is a tremendous amount of learning happening here,” said Kyle Sipe, coach for Tech Team I from Clara Brownell Middle School in Umatilla.

Teams took turns sending off their robots on a mission to accomplish as many of the challenges as possible in 2.5 minutes or less. But the actual competition involved much more than what the robots could do on the table. Students were also judged on their design decisions and innovations in engineering. Each team was asked to conduct research related to the challenges and present their findings to a panel of judges. Excellence in all three areas added up to the final score for Union’s Rock ‘N Rowbots. 

“I still get a lump in my throat, “ said Croft, remembering the reaction of one of the girls on the winning team.

He won’t soon forget the words she said as she came skipping down the hallway past him:  “I’m going to college! I’m going to college!”

For Croft and others who realize the possibilities of such an opportunity, it doesn’t get much better than that. The students who will receive scholarships are Chance Simmons, Blake Posey, James Fitzpatrick, Anna Michrina, Kayla Corbin and Cooper Pierce.

The top five teams from the regional tournament at EOU qualified for the state competition in January. From there, the top five teams from across the state will go on to compete at the national level.

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