We Did the Impossible!
Contributed by Carter Fickes
We are The Northern Knights, a robotics team that competes at a national level in FIRST Robotics. “FIRST is the world’s leading youth robotics community, delivering hands-on STEM learning that inspires innovation, builds confidence, and prepares kids for life…” We are a part of one of their programs called FRC, which stands for FIRST Robotics Competition.
Team photo, left to right: Wesley Quimby; Carter Fickes; Finn Quimby; Isaac Slottee; Cooper Havemeister; Justin Jones; Jonathan (JT) Gross; Kanna Loer; Tanya Black; Jeremiah Dusenbery.
After FIRST announced the game this year, our team built a robot from scratch based on the strategy presented. The tasks are related to a real-world problem that we aim to solve. This time, we were tasked with building a robot capable of in-taking balls (also called fuel) in large quantities and shooting them into a hopper in the center of the field to score points.
Our team is the only FRC team in the state of Alaska that competes at this level. We have a team of 9 people representing 6 high schools in the Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage. We just returned from a regional qualifying competition in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we competed among 47 other teams from the US, the Czech Republic, Japan, and China. Our team has been eager to compete at this level ever since we all started in FIRST robotics at the lower levels, FLL (FIRST Lego League) and FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge).
Northern Knights FRC robot named The Carrot
The thing that motivated us to compete at this level was the ambition of our team captain, Isaac. He has always had a dream to start an FRC team from Alaska and to compete at this level. It is Isaac’s senior year, and our team worked tirelessly over multiple months to make his dream come true and to prove to ourselves that we could do it. However, going into this regional, we knew we were the underdogs. This season is our rookie season, and none of us, except Isaac, had ever competed at this level before. With the help of our amazing sponsors, we built a robot that met our objective task and was able to adapt to our strategy and the game for this year.
We arrived in Minnesota on Tuesday, April 2, and hit the ground running, testing and looking at the field. Our team ended up pivoting our robot strategy due to complications and became a defense robot that was able to aid our alliance partners, with whom we are paired in every match, to win. We were chosen to be part of the number one alliance by Team 2052, Knight Krawlers, in the semifinal and final matches. This allowed us to be part of the winning alliance and win the entire regional competition.
This accomplishment has never been achieved before by a team in Alaska, especially not by a rookie team. In the entire history of FIRST in Alaska, no team has reached this level. We have done the impossible and are now competing in the World Championship in Houston, Texas, at the end of April. Teams will travel from around the world, and we are honored to represent the state of Alaska. In the words of our coach, Tanya Black, after we qualified for the championships, “You guys have done the impossible! I am so proud of each and every one of you…”
We are seeking your support for our team. If you would like to support us, email northernroboticscolony@gmail.com or follow @northern_knights26431 on Instagram and “Northern Knights Robotics” on YouTube.
After FIRST announced the game this year, our team built a robot from scratch based on the strategy presented. The tasks are related to a real-world problem that we aim to solve. This time, we were tasked with building a robot capable of in-taking balls (also called fuel) in large quantities and shooting them into a hopper in the center of the field to score points.
Our team is the only FRC team in the state of Alaska that competes at this level. We have a team of 9 people representing 6 high schools in the Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage. We just returned from a regional qualifying competition in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we competed among 47 other teams from the US, the Czech Republic, Japan, and China. Our team has been eager to compete at this level ever since we all started in FIRST robotics at the lower levels, FLL (FIRST Lego League) and FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge).
The thing that motivated us to compete at this level was the ambition of our team captain, Isaac. He has always had a dream to start an FRC team from Alaska and to compete at this level. It is Isaac’s senior year, and our team worked tirelessly over multiple months to make his dream come true and to prove to ourselves that we could do it. However, going into this regional, we knew we were the underdogs. This season is our rookie season, and none of us, except Isaac, had ever competed at this level before. With the help of our amazing sponsors, we built a robot that met our objective task and was able to adapt to our strategy and the game for this year.
We arrived in Minnesota on Tuesday, April 2, and hit the ground running, testing and looking at the field. Our team ended up pivoting our robot strategy due to complications and became a defense robot that was able to aid our alliance partners, with whom we are paired in every match, to win. We were chosen to be part of the number one alliance by Team 2052, Knight Krawlers, in the semifinal and final matches. This allowed us to be part of the winning alliance and win the entire regional competition.
Northern Knights FRC robot named The Carrot
This accomplishment has never been achieved before by a team in Alaska, especially not by a rookie team. In the entire history of FIRST in Alaska, no team has reached this level. We have done the impossible and are now competing in the World Championship in Houston, Texas, at the end of April. Teams will travel from around the world, and we are honored to represent the state of Alaska. In the words of our coach, Tanya Black, after we qualified for the championships, “You guys have done the impossible! I am so proud of each and every one of you…”
We are seeking your support for our team. If you would like to support us, email northernroboticscolony@gmail.com or follow @northern_knights26431 on Instagram and “Northern Knights Robotics” on YouTube.