The Livingston PostState Sen. Lana Theis and her colleagues welcomed the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) World Champion TechnoDogs robotics team from Brighton High School to the Capitol on Wednesday.
The TechnoDogs consist of 68 students with support from 35 mentors and are led by coaches Rocky Roberts and Nathan Hogge. The team and its robot, Bot Ross, took first place in the international robotics competition held at Cobo Center in Detroit April 24-27.
Theis presented the team with a special tribute to honor and commemorate the team’s victory.
“It is my honor to recognize the Brighton TechnoDogs for their amazing accomplishments, not only at the FIRST World Championship, but also in the classroom and our community. Residents of the 22nd Senate District should be extremely proud of this talented team, their coaches, mentors and parents for its tremendous success,” said Theis, R-Brighton. “As a scientist myself, it brings me great joy to see so many of our area’s youth excited about STEM. The skills they are developing will serve them well throughout their careers.
“The team’s achievements are impressive, and I believe they have only just scratched the surface of their future success. I can’t wait to see what they accomplish from here. Congratulations!”
The FRC is an international high school robotics competition. Teams work during a six-week period to build game-playing robots to complete tasks such as scoring balls into goals, flying discs into goals, placing inner tubes onto racks, hanging on bars, and balancing robots on balance beams, for example.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 by renowned inventor Dean Kamen. FIRST programs help build student interest and knowledge in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) related fields.
For more information, visit https://www.technodogs.org/ and https://www.firstchampionship.org/.
