91ÇÑ×Ó

Writes Oscar W. (Divs)

After qualifying for the prestigious event, we reached the round of sixteen in the Maths division, showcasing impressive skills and strategic thinking to progress further than any 91ÇÑ×Ó team previously. We worked tirelessly to prepare the robot for the high-stakes competition, demonstrating exceptional engineering prowess and problem-solving abilities. Our team used a "flatbot" style robot, to try to achieve goal set by the other team to remove any balls the other team had scored. This design meant that extra time had to be devoted to make the relatively small robot strong enough to compete with larger, and more powerful robots. Our hard work and dedication paid off, as we were able to overcome the difficulty of using a smaller bot, and successfully de-scored our opponents' triballs multiple times. Though we did not advance further in the finals, we ended up 56th out of 500 teams worldwide. The team can be proud of our accomplishments and the valuable experience we gained competing against the top robotics teams from around the world. This experience taught us valuable skills, which can not only be used in the DET department, but also in further life.

Outside of the competition, we visited the Reunion Tower, 6th Floor Museum, located in the Book Repository, where Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy. It was incredibly detailed and gave us another side to the story. We also embraced the MLB spirit, watching the Texas Rangers lose to the Washington Nationals in a close 0-1 match after 9 innings, while enjoying $1 hotdogs and wearing free baseball tops. The following day, we visited the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, where we learnt about dinosaurs in and around Texas, as well as more robotics and engineering concepts, after which, we had a fantastic tour of the city, visiting the home of blues in Deep Ellum and the rather posh Highland Park for the wealthy business owners of Dallas.

Overall, it was a hugely successful trip, offering both competition and cultural activities. We would like to thank Mr Tang for arranging it, and Mr Wilson and Mr Omunyeni for taking and supporting us whilst in Dallas. 

91ÇÑ×Ó Hydra: Oscar W (Divisions), Ali J (Divisions) Shay N (Divisions), Thomas B (Divisions)