ViperBots advance to regionals

By SUZANNE GALLIGHER,Contributor

Photos by Brandon Burkhardt 

The Vandegrift ViperBots are advancing to regionals – all eight FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams.

Seven ViperBot teams advanced out of the Austin Metro League Championship held Feb. 3 where 46 teams from Austin and the surrounding area competed for one of 12 spots to the Alamo FTC Regional Championship on Feb. 16 – 17 at VHS.  

The seven teams that advanced directly to Regionals include ViperBots 4545 Ouroboros, 4546 Snakebyte, 6209 Venom, 6210 Stryke, 7161 Hydra, 11503 HyperFang and 12596 Copperhead.  Irad Allen, a ViperBot faculty sponsor, was surprised at this showing, “Seven out out of twelve spots are us. Unbelievable. The first alternate to Regionals is us. We missed it by one spot.”  

“It’s been a whirlwind of a ride,” said Alexa Adrian, project manager for the newest ViperBot team, 12596 Copperhead. “We started off at the bottom and now we’re third pick in our winning alliance. I’m really proud of my team. They inspire me to be a better leader every single day.  They work harder than any other team I’ve ever been on.”

Teams advance at FTC through both robotic competition on the field and through judged presentations based on various criteria throughout the year. Four of the teams advanced through the competition and three by way of the judged awards.  

Kelly Scalpati, Project Manager for 11503 HyperFang, advancing through winning the Motivate award said, “Our team won the Motivate Award (because of) our work with our nonprofit organization that we founded called COINS, which stands for Career Opportunities IN STEM.  It’s focus is on helping students gain insight into the world of science, technology, engineering and math. We’re really excited to get that award and we’re looking forward to Regionals.”

An additional nine teams from the AML Championship, including ViperBots 6299 Quad X, advanced to the Wild Card Qualifier on Feb. 10 in San Antonio where they earned their spot at Regionals on the field as a finalist alliance.

 

4545 Ouroboros

Brianna Navas, Project Manager

Ashiqa Momin

Devin Fink

Emily Yu

Grace Ballengee

Marcus Navas

Michael Tsoi

Navya Janga

Riley Galligher

Timothy Tersigni

Adelaide Johnson, FRC Mentor

Philip Sarkis, FRC Mentor

 

4546 Snakebyte

Trinh Nguyen, Project Manager

Asha Karmakar

Hemanth Madduri

Landon Palmer

Matthew Wisniewski

Michael Syphrit

Nolan Ward

Raymond Hong

Ruben Ruiz

Victor Le

Natalie Root, FRC Mentor

William Bryan, FRC Mentor

 

6209 Venom

Rice Province, Project Manager

Bo Deng

Elyssa Padovani

Hamza Ali

Hannah Branstetter

Jackson Roberts

Karthik Chavan

Mikaela McLelan

Ryan Radloff

Stefano Bonilla

Logan Everitt, FRC Mentor

 

6210 Stryke

Isabel Moring, Project Manager

Caitlyn Clark

David Cox

Grant Kitlowski

Hunter Lee

Jakob Tan

Nihal Kyasa

Paul Clukey

Rohit Chawla

William Fisher

James Hofstadler, FRC Mentor

 

6299 Quad X

Rebecca Bates, Project Manager

Alexander Tan

Caleb Browne

Cameron Ferweda

Chandler Pryor

Devan Patel

Kiyan Bhalla

Mia Thompson

Ryan Hollaway

Tanvi Siruvuri

Justin Phillips, FRC Mentor

 

7161 Hydra

Varun Gorti, Project Manager

Abigal Pomerantz

Angela Phan

Avinash Gupta

Evan Deeny

Nicholas Chan

Roslynne Norrod

Samuel Kim

William Gunawan

Cole Ibanez, FRC Mentor

Devan Dholakia, FRC Mentor

Ian Padovani, FRC Mentor

Matthew Kind, FRC Mentor

 

11503 HyperFang

Kelly Scalpati, Project Manager

Christopher Vallone

Daniel Lee

Ethan Williams

Kendall Cuddy

Matthew Poole

Peter Horvath

Phillip Branca

Shawn Burkhardt

Will Pasquarette

Neil Rathod, FRC Mentor

 

12596 Copperhead

Alexa Adrian, Project Manager

Adithya Sathyanarayanan

Arvind Venkatesan

Geneva Brown

Jett Chafin

Kylee Adrian

Mohana Chavan

Pierce Lai

Ryley Murakami

Sami Mulpuri

Sophie Polidoro

Adam Busch, FRC Mentor

Gabriel Diaz, FRC Mentor

Sachin Desai, FRC Mentor

Awards:

Alamo FIRST Tech Challenge Wild Card Qualifier
6299 Quad X

Finalist Alliance

Winner Control Award

2nd Inspire Award

 

Austin Metro League Championship   

4545 Ouroboros

2nd Motivate Award

Winner Connect Award

3rd Think Award

3rd Inspire Award

 

4546 Snakebyte

Winner Think Award

 

6209 Venom

2nd Control Award

2nd Inspire Award

 

6210 Stryke

Williams Division Finalist Alliance

Event Finalist Alliance

 

6299 Quad X

Team Captain, Keller Division Finalist Alliance

3rd Connect Award

 

7161 Hydra

Keller Division Winning Alliance

Event Winning Alliance

3rd Control Award

Winner Design Award

2nd Rockwell Collins Innovate Award

 

11503 HyperFang

Williams Division Finalist Alliance

Event Finalist Alliance

Winner Motivate Award

 

12596 Copperhead

Keller Division Winning Alliance

Event Winning Alliance

Judges Award for Augmented Reality Showcase

The Austin Metro League (AML) Championship Event Winning Alliance – Team Captain 8886 Saber Robotics from St. Gabriel’s Catholic School with ViperBots 7161 Hydra and ViperBots 12596 Copperhead

ViperBots 4546 SnakeByte won the Think Award for removing engineering obstacles through creative thinking.

ViperBots 4545 Ouroboros won the Connect Award for connecting the dots between community, FIRST, and the diversity of the engineering world.

The Austin Metro League (AML) Event Finalist Alliance – Team Captain 4290 LASA High PHidelity with ViperBots 11503 HyperFang and ViperBots 6210 Stryke

ViperBots Quad X advances to Regionals from Wild Card and proudly displays their medals alongside Faculty Sponsors Tamany Wendel and Irad Allen.

ViperBots 6209 Venom won 2nd in Control Award and 2nd in Inspire Award at the Austin Metro League competition.