Ethel Walker Robotics Team Participates in Innovation Fair

At the Simsbury Innovation Fair this Saturday, April 25, the Ethel Walker School’s First Robotics Competition team, the Wirecats, will demonstrate a robot they built and used in two competitions this school year.

The team, just started this school year, was recently selected as the Rookie All-Star at the New England District qualifier in Hartford, and they’re currently getting ready for their last two competitions of the season in May — the Connecticut State Championships and BattleCry@WPI at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Dolan Patrick, a science teacher at the school and mentor of the team, said students are responsible for making and using the robots — “from robot design, construction and programming to maintaining our website and social media presence.”

United Technologies Corp. gave the team a grant for supplies and competition fees, and several engineers from the company have volunteered their time to work with the all-girls team.

You can check out their Twitter stream to get a look at their progress. The team will have a table at the Simsbury Innovation in Program Room 1 at the Simsbury Public Library.