PALMDALE – The Palmdale Aerospace Academy’s (TPAA) FRC Team 5012 Gryffingear took first place and won their second Imagery Award at the Las Vegas FRC Regional Competition held March 26-28 at the Las Vegas Cashman’s Center.
The competition featured 42 teams from around the country, including Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Pennsylvania, California, and three teams from China.
TPAA Team 5012 Gryffingear Robotics, which is made up of 35 students, six mentors and two advisors, joined together for five weeks in January to discover their new game challenge: design and build their robot “Fawkes.”
They finished the second day of the Regional qualifying matches ranked 41 of 42. However, during the Alliance selection of the competition, Team 5012 Gryffingear was selected to advance to the semi-finals by Team 148.
The local team also went on to win the Imagery Award, which celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration of machine and team appearance.
“We are extremely proud of each and every student on this team,” stated Team Advisor Brian Martin. “They have worked to collaborate amongst their committees and come up with a plan that shows both their engineering and marketing skills at competition. They have great work ethic and have sacrificed a great deal for each other and are well deserving of their place at World Championships.”
Sponsorship support needed
The team will travel to St. Louis, Missouri, to compete in the 2015 FIRST World Championship April 21-26, 2015. The students are seeking sponsorship support for their travel costs, which include shipping costs for their tools, pit booth and much more.
If you are interested in supporting the team, contact team parent/coordinator Nardy Lopez at nardylopez70@gmail.com or 661-916-8070, or Advisor Brian Martin at bcmartin@tpaa.org, 661-273-3680 ext. 15 at TPAA, or 951-972-7196.
For more information about the Palmdale Aerospace Academy’s Team 5012 Gryffingear Robotics, visit gryffingear.com.
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