Photo credit: Singh KohliGorham students Front: Laura Burt, Frank Verneau, Christian Randall, Back: Riley McCallister, Jason Verrill, Sam Merrow, Trevin Macomber, Kai Armstrong, not pictured Luke Boudreau
The Northern Force FIRST® Robotics Team 172, made up of students from Gorham and Falmouth High Schools, has made significant changes to its organization and team structure this year. These changes are designed to improve communication and collaboration. The team’s objective is to design and build a robot that can navigate obstacles and collect or deposit game pieces. With hard work and dedication, they have been successful in designing and programming their robot, achieving an impressive 100% accuracy rate for the autonomous portion of each game at the first event of the season.
To stand out from the competition, the team is portraying itself as Pink Vikings, sporting flashy capes and medieval gear while maintaining its unique pink team color. Most importantly, with the support of their community, Team 172 is enthusiastic about achieving another successful and enjoyable robotics season.
FIRST® Robotics is an exciting competition that challenges high school students to design, engineer, and program robots for various tasks. The annual competition season begins on the first Saturday of January, providing teams with a new game manual each season that outlines the objectives of the game. By encouraging teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity, the competition provides students with valuable real-world engineering and technology experience.
The Northern Force was founded in 1996 by Gorham High School, with Falmouth High School joining the team in 2003, and has a long history of success in the competition. They have won numerous awards and accolades, including qualifying for the highest level of competition, Worlds, four times, winning a spirit award at Worlds, and receiving countless awards at regional and district events.
This year, the Northern Force will compete in two weekend events leading up to the District Championships, which are held in early April.