Underwater Research Robotics teammates gather throughout the week to place flamingo statues on Alpena residents’ lawns. As Michiganders realize a flamingo is in their lawn, they can call the team to remove it or put it on someone else’s lawn in exchange for a donation to the students for the upcoming world championship.
The Alpena High School robotics team won the Ranger category in the ROV Competition on May 20. This means they are the only qualifying team out of 13 in the Great Lakes regional competition to attend worlds in Longmont, Colorado from June 21 to the 24.
Research Robotics Coach Bob Thomson said the competition is all about working together and creating an opportunity for the students to network with others that share the same goal.
“We are all kind of in the same process, we are all problem solving trying to engineer for the same thing,” he said. “And you think it’d be fairly cut throat, but it’s not. It’s just one collaborative massive network of teams.”
All nine students on the Underwater Research Robotics team need to raise money for their travels and stay in Colorado. So far, the team has made the efforts by “flocking” community members with flamingos for donations. Additionally, they have set up a website (https://schoolpay.com/pay/for/National-ROV-Competition-Longmont-CO/SNoENS) to receive funds and accept cash or checks made out to AHS ROV Club, MI 49707.
They have collected a good amount of funds; however, they are still short of about $5,000 before it’s time to compete across the country with teams from Turkey, Japan, Ethiopia, and many others.
“We are staying positive and we are going to keep working, keep asking,” Thomson said. “We’ll get there. We have to.”
The Alpena team has made it to the world championship eight times, and this is the first time they have returned since the competition was put on hold in 2019.
The team consists of students mainly in 8th through 10th grade, apart from one senior. Whereas the 50 teams at worlds mostly contain juniors and seniors.
Ninth grade teammate and CEO Lydia Thomson, also the daughter of Coach Bob Thomson, said the team has worked really hard to get to where they are now and they are excited to “just go do it.” However, it can be nerve-wracking being a young team.
“When you go to worlds, its seniors and juniors everywhere,” she said. “And its like oh, we are a team of eight graders and ninth graders, and you’ve got the one senior… we don’t know how anything works sometimes … we are just so new at it.”
But what makes it even “awesomer,” Lydia Thomson said is being able to rely on her teammates she has grown close with.
“You’ve worked so hard for something, and you finally get to go and do it,” she said. “And you get to do it with them (her teammates).”
Eighth grade teammate Elizabeth Rabbideau said she is excited for the competition because there will be a lot of people attending that do ROV for their career that she can network with.
Lydia Thomson agreed. She said she is most excited to meet the people that are working in fields she wants to eventually work in.
When asked what she hopes the community learns from this opportunity, Rabbideau said to learn more about what they can do for their local robotics team.
“I hope they (community members) know more about ROV because most people don’t know a lot about it,” she said.
Lydia Thomson said she has had people approach her regarding the team making it to worlds. And as she spoke about it, the smile on her face showed how much the recognition has meant to her and the team.