As the World Championship competition last weekend marked the end of the 2011 FRC Competition Season, Bobcat Robotics is reflecting on one of our most successful years. Although we are a little sad to end such a great year, we could not be prouder of our team’s accomplishments. For the first time since 2007 our team attended two regional competitions, and for the first time since 2006 we made it to the finals of both sets of eliminations. Fighting what the team dubbed the “curse of twos” (two regionals, 2nd place rank at both & 2nd place finish at both) we moved on to St. Louis for the World Championships. There Bobcats placed 6th out of 88 teams on the Archimedes Division. The team went on to claim its 6th consecutive divisional win and eventually became Championship Finalists.

Bobcat Robotics is very thankful to team 2016, Mighty Monkey Wrenches, for choosing us to be their partners. And we would like to also thank team 781, The Kinetic Knights, for being an amazing alliance partner, and one that we were keen to work with. The team would like to congratulate one of our own members, TJ, on winning the WPI Design Innovation Scholarship and we would also like to congratulate our head mentor, Mr. Mothersele, once more for his dedication to the team and on his well-deserve Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.

Last week the Bobcats attended the WPI Regional.  After qualification matches, the team was ranked in 2nd place and went on to become Regional Finalists in the elimination rounds.  Thank you to teams 3125 and 1100 for working with us throughout elimination matches and congratulations to teams 40, 195 and 2370 for capturing the title as Regional Champions.

Bobcat Robotics also took home several awards from WPI.  The mechanical team was very pleased to receive the GM Industrial Design Award.  Additionally, the team would like to congratulate its lead mentor, Mr. “Mo” Mothersele for winning the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.  Mo has been an integral part of the team since its inception in 1995, and this award is a long overdue recognition of his commitment to FIRST and to students.

The Bobcat Robotics team is proud of its success at the WPI Regional and looks forward to competing again at the Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional in two weeks.

After competing at the Suffield Shakedown, the team has put in a lot of work to build upon our successes and improve the robot for the official competitions.  In just a few days the team will travel to Worcester to compete at the WPI Regional.  Information about the event, including a link for a live webcast  can be found here: http://www.wpi.edu/news/firstregional.

Following the competition at WPI, the Bobcats will be hosting the Second Annual Pasta Dinner and Silent Auction to raise funds for team travel and sustainability.  For more information about this event, including online ticket reservations and a full list of auction items please visit http://www.bobcatrobotics.org/pastadinner.

It’s been five full weeks since the FIRST Game Design Committee released LogoMotion, and finally our robot seems to be coming together.  In the coming weeks and months we look forward to attending the WPI Regional, the Northeast Utilities FIRST CT Regional and the FIRST Championship Event.  Good luck to all teams for the remainder of build season and throughout competition season.  See you on the field!