Stuart, Fla. (March 21, 2022) – The Martin County School District’s S.P.A.M. robotics team has won the Orlando Regional FIRST tournament and secured a spot at the World Championships in Houston with their robot, ‘Soft Swerve!’.
The 2022 S.P.A.M. team includes 36 students from Jensen Beach High School, Martin County High School, South Fork High School, the Clark Advanced Learning Center and home schoolers. S.P.A.M. stands for ‘Speed, Power, and Maneuverability’.
The team entered the competition seeded #2. They dominated their preliminary matches and entered the elimination round undefeated.
Team Captain senior Lizzie Vanhooser, a South Fork High School International Baccalaureate senior, accepted an offer from the #1 seeded Riviera Beach team, the ‘Children of the Swamp’, to form a robot alliance team for the finals. Together with team “OGRE” from Alabama they swept the eliminations.
Team S.P.A.M. continued their undefeated streak throughout the elimination round and won a gold in the overall competition. That earned the team a spot at the FIRST World Championships in Houston in April.
During the closing ceremony Team S.P.A.M. was also presented with the “Autonomous Award” sponsored by Ford. The award celebrates the team that has demonstrated consistent, reliable, high-performance robot operation during autonomously managed actions. The award criteria is based on the robot’s ability to sense its surroundings, position itself or onboard mechanisms appropriately, and execute tasks.
57 U.S. and International teams competed in the FIRST robotics competition that was held at the University of Florida Addition Area from March 9 to March 11.
The FIRST Robotics Competition is a program that challenges high school students, working with professional mentors, to design and build a robot to contend in competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot. The contest demonstrates the power of collaboration, and the determination of students.
FIRST was founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 to design accessible, K-12 STEM education programs that use robot challenges to build science and technology skills and interests, in a character driven program that also inspires self-confidence, leadership and life skills. The acronym FIRST means “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”.
The S.P.A.M. robotics team is sponsored by 4H and depends on donations and is supported by businesses and individuals throughout the community, as well as sponsorships by Chemplex, Elatec, FPL, Doolittle Institute, Pratt and Whitney, Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Martin County 4H Extension Office, and The Education Foundation of Martin County.
To help the team travel to Houston, credit card donations can be made at: https://ufgive.to/martin4Hrobo and add > MCFRC - 180 S.P.A.M. in the comment section.