Columbus Space Program robotics team qualifies for championship

Those amazing high school students on the Columbus Space Program’s robotics team have done it again.

For the second straight year, they qualified for the FIRST Robotics World Championship, April 27-30 in St. Louis. And for the second straight year, they are seeking financial aid to help pay for their expenses.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international not-for-profit organization for youth that also operates the FIRST LEGO League (grades 4-8), the FIRST LEGO League Jr. (K-3), and the FIRST Tech Challenge (7-12).

It will cost an estimated $10,000 for the bus rides, hotel rooms and food for the 34 students, more than double the 14 on last year’s team. They also would appreciate money or in-kind donations to acquire LED lights, a laptop computer (preferably a Netbook), a toolbox, a toolkit, a cart and an enclosed trailer.

Oh, and a trophy case. Yes, they are that good.

They won the district event last month, beating 40 other teams from across Georgia. They qualified for the world championship by finishing second out of 52 teams from 11 states at the Rocket City Regional in Huntsville.

Columbus High School physics and computer science teacher Luther Richardson, who directs the Columbus Space Program, which comprises Columbus Robotics, said all of the program’s students attend Columbus High. Three years ago, six schools were represented, so Richardson welcomes students and teacher from other schools to join or help them form their own teams.

This year’s competition is called FIRST Stronghold. In the medieval-themed game, teams use the 150-pound robot they constructed to cross defenses, throw “boulders” into the opponent’s “tower” and scale a “castle” for victory.

Beyond the fun competition, the program provides serious extracurricular education in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math. Richardson compares it to “an industry research and development project, where students experience a full engineering lifecycle.”

The program’s fundraising site is at GoFundMe.com/frc4188. As of Wednesday, 61 people have donated a total of $3,576. Learn more at ColumbusSpaceProgram.org. Richardson’s email address is astro@mit.edu.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Columbus Space Program robotics team qualifies for championship."