MANCHESTER, NH — Manchester School of Technology’s FIRST Robotics team came home victorious from the New England District Greater Boston competition, just weeks after the first-ever team at MST was established. Team 6763 placed third on its own, then captained the alliance team that won first place in another part of the competition. In addition, Team 6763 received the Rookie Highest Seed Award for scoring the highest points in a match and the Rookie All-Star Award.
A generous grant from the FIRST Foundation helped get Team 6763 started in January. Two Mentors and a few parents volunteered to coach the 25 students, and several MST staff members are helping out as well. The team then faced a February 26 deadline to create a working robot for its debt competition on March 3. Coming in 21st place but excelling in certain functions and learning lessons along the way earned the team the Rookie Inspiration Award.
MST’s Career and Technical Education program allowed Team 6763 to make use of its many resources including advanced CNC machining, welding, and CAD design.
“Preparing for competition is a student-driven operation,” said FIRST Robotics Team 6763 coach Andrew Nicholas. “The team’s collaborative prototyping process and approach to building their designing, engineering, mechanical, and technical skills make them factored into their achievements as 21st century thinkers.”
In addition to all of their hard work on the field, Team 6763 is reaching out to the community to help grow the younger FIRST community. Students have shared their learning experience with children at Manchester Police Athletic League.
The most recent results from Boston put Team 6763 in third place in New England. Up next is another district-level event at UNH on April 6-9. From there, if MST’s students are the highest scoring rookie team or place high enough to gain enough merit points, they will qualify for the World Championship in St. Louis, MO, on April 26.
