Members of the Westlake High School robotics team competed at the Texas BEST Robotics Competition at the University of North Texas’s Coliseum in Denton, Texas Saturday with 47 other teams from Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Each of the teams competing in the competition earned the right to be there by winning spots at earlier local competitions.

“We finished the seeding rounds of the tournament ranked fourth, and in the semifinals competition, we finished in eighth place,” said Norman Morgan, WHS robotics instructor and team coach. “We experienced some technical difficulties in the semifinals that resulted in the team falling in the standings. But we also won second place in the Founders Award for Creative Design.”

The Founders Award for Creative Design is given to the team that makes best use of the engineering process in consideration of offensive and defensive capabilities in machine design, Morgan said.

This is the second year the WHS team has advanced o Texas BEST in its three years of competition. The team is sponsored by the Eanes school district, Texas Instruments, National Instruments, Thunder Data Systems, Pixels and Verbs and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

“Our sponsors support the team in a variety of ways, one of which is mentoring the team,” Morgan said. “The mentors volunteer time five days a week to work with the team after school. Students work under the guidance of the mentors for all aspects of the contest.”

Morgan said that the BEST contest involves the students in designing, building and operating a robot. It also includes designing, building and running a Web site, marketing, public outreach to younger students, developing an engineering notebook, communications and fundraising.

Current mentors to the WHS robotics students are Scott McMahon, Joe Hershberger, Linda McMahon, Michael Watson and Dawn Green. Dona Jordan, Tim Jordan and Norman Morgan. Eanes staff members also work with team members.

The WHS robotics team is now preparing for the FIRST robotics competition, which will kick off Jan. 9, with a Lone Star Regional in Houston and a Championship Competition in Atlanta at the World Congress Center and Georgia Dome April 15-17.

The upcoming First Lego League Champions Competition will be held at Rouse High School in Leander Saturday. The 60 teams competing in the event were all top five finishers in November local qualifying tournaments in the Central Texas area.

Three Eanes school district teams will compete in the Lego Champions Competition, Barton Creek and Cedar Creek elementary schools teams and the Hill Country Middle School team.

“It’s amazing what good teamwork can accomplish,” said Brent Bauries, a member of the Cedar Creek team. “Someone in our group was always coming up with a solution when we had a problem. Our coach (Vince Hummel) was great at getting us to think about problems in different ways. In robotics, every move has to be broken down into detailed steps.”

Bauries said that winning the competition would be nice, but he has already come out ahead in the process by developing his presentation skills through work on the Lego project.

“I hope to keep working on robotics with my friends in the future,” he said.