FRC World Championship Houston: WOW!

We are still reeling from the experience. IT WAS AMAZING!!!

More details to come, but for now here’s the school announcement!

Anderson Robotics, the ausTIN CANs, is having our best season in our 13 years existence.  We shocked the state with hosting VEX state championship and the first Texas FIRST District tournament this year.  Last week the state was still buzzing about how much fun they had at Anderson while we competed in the FIRST Robotics Championship in Houston.  For the first time we finished with a winning record 8-2, first time making the playoff, and first time being an alliance captain, earning the 4th top team in our region of 68 teams.   We took a big step in our program in FIRST Robotics.   How do we follow this exciting week, we are heading to VEX World Championship in Louisville, KY.  This the first time in four years we have sent both our robotics teams to the world championships.  Please congratulate any robotics team member in your class on our best season ever.

Introduction to another round of play in the Hopper division: This time as Fourth Alliance Captains!

GOING TO WORLDS

Well, we only thought it was over! We finished the District Tournament just below the cutoff.

Today, we received an invitation to attend Worlds and we enthusiastically replied YES!

Did you know it happens NEXT WEEK?!?

We will be scrambling to secure funding, travel plans, etc. It will all be great.

Looking forward to some fun! Want to help us get there? Please visit our Donate page!

District Championship Day 3

Well, the CANs finished strong at state -- 26th out of 64 --but not quite strong enough to make it to the top ranks in the state for the season overall and advance to Worlds. BUT, these kids amazed us all season long with their perseverance and trouble-shooting skills and they improved at every tournament.

They learned invaluable design, programming, presentation, and networking skills that will translate directly at the collegiate level and throughout their STEM careers. AND -- they had fun. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about!

Proud of you, ausTIN CANs!

Destination: Deep Space challenge has been fun!

District Championship Day 2

Day 2 of the FIRST IN Texas state tournament included 7 great matches bringing us to a 6-4 records and a 28/64 ranking — which is an improvement from how we started the tournament! Plus some nice news coverage from our local ABC affiliate for both our team and our sister team, the Lady Bots! Bring on day 3 and fingers crossed.

Want to watch the video on the local news? Scroll down or use this LINK!

The Drive Team (plus a camera-shy mentor) between rounds of play Day 2 District Championship

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Many thanks to our local ABC affiliate, KVUE, for helping us to #MakeItLoud on the local news!

District Championship Day 1

We passed inspection.

The climber works.

Oh, and we won against 118.

It was a good day!

OMG ROBOTS!!! CANs going to State!

Our FRC team played in Week 1 and Week 4 Events. Week 5 is the last of the District Events, and included Pasadena and Dallas excitement. Week 6 is the District Championship.

Pasadena ended on Saturday, and we cheered for our friends the Lady Cans (2881) as they won Chairman’s after almost going to the Finals. Tiebreakers in Semis are so tough!

On Sunday, going into the Final rounds in Dallas, the ausTIN CANs were ranked 59 in the state. The ten Chairman’s Award winners plus the next 54 ranked teams qualify for District Championship.

We held our breath as the Dallas tournament progressed. Award winners leapfrogged ahead of us in the rankings. And then… when it was all finalized… we DID qualify for the District Championship! Very exciting, in an anxiety-inducing way.

So happy to get to plan on seeing awesome teams this week downtown. It ought to be exciting!

Follow along online HERE.

District rankings here.

CANs advance to Playoffs in Greenville FRC event

So proud of our FRC team who had a great tournament in Greenville and wound up chosen as the #7 Alliance partner to advance to Quarterfinals. Here is the Blue Alliance summary for all the specs! It was good to see some familiar teams there, as well as getting to meet and compete with some new faces.

We were honored to be awarded the Imagery Award at the tournament as well. Congrats to our CAD team for that!

We will be eagerly watching the rest of the FIRST in Texas results as we are hoping to earn a spot at the District Championship next month. More to come soon!