Elgin students, who participate in an engineering program through Tri-Rivers and Marion Technical College, won the Ohio State SkillsUSA Mobile Robotics contest on April 27-28 in Columbus. Seniors Dustin Foster, Nick Dunn and Eric Napper beat the 2011 defending state champs and national participant, The Technology Center of Fremont, 105 to 50 over three matches.
The contest was a two-minute contest in programming and robot construction skills. The Elgin team was the strongest team at the event in programming, averaging more points in the programming Robot C language (25 points) mode than the other teams averaged in their total score. Foster, Dunn, and Napper designed, built, and drew their robot for the event. The judges graded them on professionalism, presentation skills, interviewing ability, and their engineering notebooks — and awarded them the gold.
They all attended the Industrial Technology program taught by Elgin teacher Mr. John Kuzio. Each student has earned more than 12 Marion Tech College (MTC) credit hours this year while attending the Tri-Rivers Career Center’s Engineering Technology program.
This is the third major robotics event Elgin High School students have won this year. Kelsea Sullivan won the TRECA DA Vex Robotics Gateway Qualifier and attended the U.S. National contest in Omaha, Neb. Tyler Major won the MTC Vex Robotics Qualifier and attended the Vex World qualifier in Anaheim, Cal.
Dustin, Nick and Eric will be competing at the National SkillsUSA in Kansas City June 25-28. Each of the nine Elgin students that have attended our program has won a major award in various robotics contests this year.
About Marion Online News
