The Solanco High School (SHS) robotics team has won the most innovative design award in the Penn State SeAL Virtual Robotics state competition. The competition was hosted and organized by Penn State University's Business, Engineering, Information Science, and Technology Department and sponsored by the U.S. Navy. The competition consisted of several dozen high school robotics teams from across the mid-Atlantic region and Ohio. Students had to use their knowledge and research in robotics to design, create, and code a robotic system that could be deployed via sea, air, or land to assist in a catastrophic event.

SHS seniors Zach Johnson, Kyle Fisher, and Colin Moran designed, created, and coded a robot that can sense objects in the area surrounding the robot, determine what each of these objects is, pick up each object, and determine the correct unloading location in a fully autonomous mode.

"The robot's performance and the ability to complete the task in an autonomous manner thoroughly impressed the judges, especially that these students were able to grasp and implement foundations of artificial intelligence and machine learning into their creation," said SHS technology education teacher Todd Brown.

Fisher completed a robotics class last year and thought it would be a good idea to start an independent study, so he, along with Moran and Johnson, formed a robotics team.

After graduation, Moran will attend West Virginia University to join the University Rover Challenge Team. "I joined the robotics team (at SHS) to see if I was cut out for something like this, and I was!" exclaimed Moran.

Johnson plans to pursue mechanical engineering. "My dad works for a company that does stuff for NASA, so after seeing him do that, I joined the team because I thought it was really cool," stated Johnson.

"I'm just a builder," said Fisher. "We all brought something different to the team, and I focused on the construction whereas Colin specialized in coding and programming."

This is the first year that SHS formed a robotics team. Brown said he hopes to continue the program at SHS and host a summer robotics camp this year for elementary and middle school students. For more information, contact Brown at todd_brown@solancosd.org.