“We have the most people we have ever had on the team this year at 36,” said robotics team captain Michael Woolsey. “A lot of them are coming in with good experience from the lower age robotics leagues at the middle schools and from STEM engineering classes here at the high school.”
The story of how Edina High School’s robotics team, the Green Machine, came to be starts with EHS alumni Chris Miller in 2006. Chris and some of his friends started the club and received a $6,000 grant from NASA to buy the team’s materials and send them to compete in their first FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition.
At the time, the Green Machine was only one of two high school teams in the state competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition and one of 1,025 teams competing from around the world. Now there are over 150 teams in the state of Minnesota alone, and as the number of competitors has grown so has the Green Machine’s success.
“We compete in about two to three competitions every year. You go through two regional competitions and if you perform well enough you can qualify for the world championships, which were in St. Louis last year,” said team member and EHS junior Alex Pastor.
The success has caught the eye of several locally owned companies. Large corporations like Medtronic and 3M sponsor the team, and local businesses such as Southdale Family Dentistry also give their support.
“Some sponsors give us money, others help by providing mentors. We even have a sponsor that lets us 3D print for free. In short, without our sponsors we would not be able to be the team that we are,” said Woolsey.
This rapid growth of interest of FIRST Robotics in middle schools and high schools has been noted at a state-wide level. At the State Fair last summer, members of Edina robotics stood alongside Senator Al Franken as he announced that FIRST Robotics teams would now be recognized by the Minnesota State High School League. The first state championship will be held in May of 2012, and the Green Machine is sure to be one of the top contenders.
For the members of Edina robotics, being on the team means a lot more than winning.
“When you see one of these robots come together at the end of the season, knowing that it was a group of high school students who designed it and built it, it’s pretty amazing,” said Woolsey.
For more information on the robotics team and their activities, visit their website, edinarobotics.com.
