On Saturday February 19th, FTC Robotics team, *STAR* won the most prestigious Award in FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition), Inspire Award in FTC Tennessee State Championship. FSA High School's FTC Robotics Team, *STAR* won a spot to compete in World Championship against top 100 FTC Team from all over the World. Team also had an excellent game in Tennessee on Saturday night. They played in the final as alliance team and got 2^nd place. 

The Inspire Award, the most prestigious FTC award, is given to the team was chosen by the judges as having best represented a role model FIRST Tech Challenge Team. To win the award the team had to be a top contender for all judging categories which were on field competition, robot design and strategy, community involvement and documenting their build strategy and process in an engineering notebook. They have now qualified for the World Championship which will be held on April 26-30, 2011 in St. Louis, MN.

Team members Brennen Bukovics, Jackson Morgan, James Morgan, Mohammad Bingahlan participated Tennessee State Championship. Current FSA HS FRC team members Reid Kersey, Alex Evans, David Purcell, Andrew Powell, Jack Joiner also spent many days and long hours getting ready for the competition at the beginning of the FTC journey. All together, they had to overcome several difficult obstacles such as developing an effective baton dispenser and autonomous program of the Robot.

Congratulations to all the team members and their teachers and parent coaches, Mrs. Teresa Bukovics, Mr. Bruce Bukovics, Mrs. Karen Purcell, Mr. Rick Purcell and Mr. Duzyol. FSA High School Robotics team members should be proud and share in this outstanding accomplishment.

FSA High School FTC Robotics Team, *STAR* previously won Inspire Award and Qualified for the GA State Championship which will be held this weekend on Feb 26th.

FSA HS *STAR* also had been nominated for all awards and won PTC Design Award in the Northwest Georgia Qualifier competition on December 5th 2010.

Meet the Team

Students

Brennen Bukovics

Brennen Bukovics is a sophomore and it is his second year in Robotics. He enjoys programming and computer based development along with gaming. He joined the team for the fact that he was interested in technology and was inspired by recent advancements in robotics. In order to get into the field, he signed on. As he is an experienced team member, he had a keen eye for possible flaws in the robotics design and was able to give suggestions and corrections as we went on with our robot design.

Mohammed Bingahlan

Mohammed Bingahlan is a sophomore and has joined robotics this year. His interests include playing video games on his PS3 and participating in Model U.N. He joined the Robotics because of what he heard about the all the fun we have when participating the FTC. This year Mohammed has been designated as the Robot driver for his hand-eye-coordination. He has also worked on many physical components of the robot and learned about programming.

Jackson Morgan

Jackson Morgan is a sophomore and is participating in his second year in robotics. He participates in Web-Design, Programming, Computer Hardware, College Prep, and Video Production when he's not in robotics. He originally joined robotics for the reason that his fellow students were doing, but has learned much in the end and has come to thoroughly enjoy it. This year he has designed the rapid dispenser and the accurate dispenser, built many components and was in charge of the notebook, team style, and the presentation.

James Morgan

James Morgan is a freshman and this is his first year in the FTC. His interests include engineering, astronomy, and digital design. As he was in FLL last year, he decided that it would be great to segway into the FTC team at his high school. He was excited about a more expansive competition in which to expand his engineering knowledge. He was the safety captain for the team and makes sure that everybody performed safely. In addition, he built many aspects of the robot. Among them is all of the mounts for the electronics.

Alex Evans

Alex Evans is a junior and has recently joined the robotics club this year. He programs for the schools tech-fair team and enjoys playing Frisbee golf in his free time. He joined the FTC team at our school for the fact that it is not only good for a college resume, but also wanted to reap the benefits of the learning experience as well as experience the fun of the Robotics Club. Alex played a pinnacle role in constructing every part of the robot especially the rapid dispenser.

David Purcell

David Purcell is a sophomore and it is his second year on the robotics team. In his free time he goes rifle shooting and builds combat robots. David participated in FLL in previous years, so he decided to join the FTC. Originally his interest in robotics was sparked by a summer camp he in which he participated in 3rd grade. David was in charge of the programming for the robot, and designing the chassis as well as building it.

Jack Joiner

Jack Joiner is a freshman and joined the robotics team this year. Jack enjoys fabrication of parts using power tools, video games, and he also participates in boy scouts. Jack believed that joining the FTC would be a fun experiment to see whether he liked robotics or not. The result of the experiment is that he believed the experience of robotics was tons of fun. Jack took charge of the bill of materials and not only learned the techniques of fabrication, but crafted many of the plastic items.

Reid Kersey

Reid Kersey is the only senior in our robotics team and has been doing robotics since his freshman year. Reid is interested in computers, programming, electronics, mechanics, robotics... Pretty much anything techie. Reid originally joined the challenge because it seemed fun, but throughout the process he learned the workings of programming. Reid carried over the experience of previous years to the current team, however could not be at some of the meetings because he has a job managing servers.

Andrew Powell

Andrew Powell is a sophomore who is participating in the robotics program for his second year. He likes technology, video games, and non-mainstream music. He joined the robotics club originally because he wanted a challenge that would keep him interested. He is our head fabricator, and has skillfully crafted all of the plastic that is currently being used on the robot.

Coaches/Teachers/Parents

Mr. Bukovics

Mr. Bukovics, Brennen's dad, works at Radiant Systems as a programmer and is our programming team mentor.

Mrs. Bukovics

Mrs. Bukovics, Brennen's mom, she is the parent mentor of the team. She works with our team in organizing events and doing all arrangements for the team.

Mr. Purcell

Mr. Purcell, David's dad, works with mechanical engineering at Kimberly Clark. He serves as our engineering mentor.

Mrs. Purcell

Mrs. Purcell, David's Mom, works with our team in organizing events and doing all of the things in the clubs like arranging things with the adults.

Mr. Duzyol

Mr. Duzyol is the faculty sponsor for the robotics club. He makes sure that the administration is up to date with everything we do in Robotics as well as helps to plan events.