EHS Robotics Team Nabs Coveted Honor, Heading to International Championship

Extraordinarily gratifying.

That's how Jim Lynch, the faculty advisor for the Eagan High School FIRST Robotics Team, describes how it felt when his team earned its first Chairman's Award at a recent regional competition.

The coveted recognition, long sought by Eagan's robotics team, automatically qualifies the group for the FIRST Robotics international championship held in St. Louis on April 24-27. At that event, a robot constructed by EHS students working in tandem with adult mentors will compete against other team's creations in a challenging task devised by the FIRST Robotics program.

Since 2008, the team has had its sights set on the Chairman's Award, which is given to the team that most exemplifies the values and mission of the program, Lynch said.

The team, Lynch said, earned the honor this year largely because of its own outreach and education efforts. Earlier this year the robotics team co-hosted a science, technology, engineering and career fair. The team has also been instrumental in the creation of an advanced computer science course at Eagan High School

"It’s kind of a monkey off our back," Lynch said of winning the award. "It’s just very, very gratifiying because of what it signifies, and incredible amount of effort not only from this current team, but the teams that went before us in our seven-year history."

In addition to the Chairman's Award, the team took home two other honors at a regional competition at the University of Minnesota on March 28-30. Eagan's team, "Blue Twilight," won an Imagery Award for marketing and aesthetic presentation. EHS junior Christina Le also won a Dean's List Finalist Award.

This year is the third time the Eagan team has qualified for the international championship, including appearances in 2009 and 2012. As many as 330 teams from across the world typically compete at the event, which will be held this year in St. Louis.

Over the next few weeks, the team will focus on improving its robot, which lost in the quarterfinal round at the regional competition.

"We’re going to take some risks and try some things to make it competitive," Lynch said.