The Southington High School’s Cyber Knights were honored with the Engineering Inspiration Award at the World Championship in St. Louis, Mo.
The Southington High School Cyber Knights have just wrapped up their six-week long competition season with the World Championship in St. Louis, Mo.
The team, who recently competed in the Tech Valley Regional competition, the Hartford District event and the New England District Championship, had not left a single competition empty-handed this year. The World Championship did not break their streak.
Out of the 3,000 teams competing internationally this season, the Cyber Knights joined just over 600 teams invited to the World Championship. Held at the Edward Jones Dome and America’s Center in St. Louis, the competition drew teams from 15 different countries
The World Championship is the final seasonal program sponsored by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). The event brings together three separate robotics competitions, including the Robotics Competition Championship, the Tech Challenge World Championship, and the LEGO League World Festival, represented by teams from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Taiwan, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Turkey, and China.
Upon their arrival, the Cyber Knights were sorted into the Newton division where they would compete with 74 other teams from across the globe. After two full days of qualifying matches in this division, the team held an average score of 179, and ranked third out of the 75 teams.
This ranking allowed the Cyber Knights to move on to the playoffs with Team SCREAM from Missouri, team Argos from Illinois and team Ranger Robotics from New York as their allies. The alliance finished the final three matches of their division with an average playoff score of 200.38
At the end of the three-day competition, the Cyber Knights attained the title of Divisional Finalists and were honored with the Engineering Inspiration award. This award is given to only four teams to recognition success in advancing appreciate of engineering within a team’s school and community.
By receiving this award, the team has been pre-qualified for the 2016 World Championship and will have their 5000-dollar entrance fee sponsored by NASA.
These honors topped off the most successful season in the team’s 18-year history, as they finished their season as one of the most decorated teams in the world with seven medals, five blue banners and three special recognitions.