Houston’s high school robotics team competing at world event

Houston County’s robotics team is in Texas for the world championships.

The Flying Legion earned a spot there after winning second place in the FIRST Robotics state competition in Athens on April 6-8.

Fourteen club members traveled to Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, and the competition concludes Saturday. The team started in 2011 and is open to students in the district’s five high schools. Bibb County’s robotics team is also participating in the world event.

“It’s our first time qualifying for world. I’m so proud of my students as well as our team’s teachers, mentors and parents,” said team adviser William Smith Jr., an engineering, manufacturing and electronics teacher at Houston County Career Academy. “We came together as a team to make this happen and could not have done it without the tremendous support of our school district and community sponsors.”

Team members built their Czar Crabby robot in six weeks, working for two hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and eight hours on Saturdays.

Club supervisors are Northside High physics teacher Tom Stahl; Veterans High math teacher Li Ma; and Houston County High special education science teacher Renetha Newman. Mentors include Robins Air Force Base engineers Michael Day and David Gentry and Honeywell engineer Bruno Grosskopf.

To sponsor the team at future events, contact Smith at 478-322-3280. To learn more about the team, visit www.flyinglegion3635.org or www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc.

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Houston’s high school robotics team competing at world event."