Around THE ARCH
The Blair Field House transformed on January 23, 2022, for the competition.
RISE OF THE MACHINES: BLAIR HOSTS
ROBOTICS COMPETITION On January 23, 22 high school teams, comprising more
Friday after school, teammates convene in the Chiang-
than 130 students, descended on Blair’s field house for an
Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration’s
event the robotics team has been looking forward to all
robotics lab—Mr. Garrant’s spacious, glass-walled classroom
year. Titled the FIRST Tech Challenge, the annual event was
outfitted with a full-size FIRST Tech Challenge playing field.
held at Blair for the first time, and the plan for our team was
And then they get to work, designing and refining robots
simple. Line up the robots at the start. At the sound of the
that will compete head-to-head against some of the best
starting bell, charge the playing field, surmount the barriers
secondary school robotics teams in the state.
laid like land mines waiting to disable the Blair team and
The Blair team attends several meets each season,
complete the task in the allotted time. Whatever happens,
concluding with the exciting FIRST Tech Challenge. If they
do not allow your robot to pounce on an opposing player.
do well, the team advances to the state championship. Three years ago, Blair students brought home an
MEET THE ROBOTICS CLUB
11th-place finish from the state championship, but the
Computer science teacher Mike Garrant has advised
club was unable to continue building on its forward
the robotics team at Blair for six years, and he loves
momentum when the pandemic struck and events were
the intense FIRST Tech annual competition because it
paused. Mr. Garrant is glad to be restarting. “Interest in
allows students to think like engineers. “The competition
the club continues to grow at Blair,” he said in October.
simulates a real-world environment, where things go
“We’ve got twice the number of members this fall than
wrong and students have to fix it in the moment to
we’ve ever had before. It’s going to be a good season.”
advance in the competition,” he says. “And players gain genuine, real-world skills: Think on your feet, act rapidly
THE FIRST TECH CHALLENGE
as a team, learn how to tap each player’s speciality.”
At the one-day competition, students were asked to
Each year, the Blair robotics club spends months preparing for the event. Meeting Monday through
4 0 W I N T ER -SP R I N G 2022
design, program and operate a robot built to complete a specific task. This season’s challenge required
