By Kerrick Shaw 

Photo Courtesy: Mr. Matthew King

The GS BotsIQ team had a smashing close to their season at the BotsIQ Finals Competition. 

On April 26^th, GS’ “Smacky, The Spinner Bot” advanced three rounds in the winner’s bracket before forfeiting due to terminal electronics issues. The competition took place at Penn West California University. 

“The point of the team is learning how to make something from scratch; from the design process to finished product,” GS BotsIQ Advisor Mr. Matthew King said. “You end up having to learn through failure a lot of the time; it takes a lot of hard work.” 

This year’s group of students consists of only four members: juniors Samantha Hanawalt, Jacob Penley, Aidan True and sophomore Rocco Himes. 

The team’s goal is to build a functioning 15-pound combat robot for battling against other similar bots, striving to destroy or disable its opponent. 

Photo Courtesy: Mr. Matthew King

“We spent from the beginning of the year to about mid-February building our bot,” True said. “We each have assigned roles to make everything easier; it’s all a big team effort.” 

Preliminaries took place at Westmoreland County Community College’s Student Achievement Center and were required before competing in the annual Finals Competition on April 26^th and 27^th. 

Each student is ambitious for next year’s season. A new and improved bot will be designed and built with the help of the industry partner General Carbide and Industry Advisor Mr. Mike Bulebosh. 

“I think it’s an exciting, positive experience, and a really great opportunity,” Himes said. “Because it was my first year being a part of the team, I learned a lot while programming and making the robot.”