Texas Torque The Woodlands wins 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) World Championship

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- This past week, more than 10,000 students from around the globe traveled to St. Louis, Mo., to put their engineering skills to the test at the annual FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship, hosted at the Edward Jones Dome.

The three-day event came down to a heart-pounding conclusion Saturday night in front of a roaring crowd of 25,000 when three teams from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; The Woodlands, Texas; and Toronto, Ontario, Canada won the coveted FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship Winning Alliance.

"This is an incredible achievement. Only one other team from Texas has ever won the FRC World Championships. We are the only team from the United States that won," said Scott Rippetoe, Lead Mentor of Texas Torque.

This year’s FRC challenge was ULTIMATE ASCENTsm, where matches are played between two Alliances of three teams each. Each Alliance competes by trying to score as many Frisbee discs into their goals as possible during the two (2)-minute and 15-second match. Discs scored in higher goals score more points. Matches end with robots attempting to climb pyramids located near the middle of the field. This year, 2,546 FRC teams in 17 countries participated in 77 Regional and District competitions. The Winning Alliance of the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship was Team 1241, THEORY6, from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; Team 1477, Texas Torque, from The Woodlands, Texas, USA; and Team 610, The Coyotes, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from the Galileo Division.

FRC combines sports excitement with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams are challenged to fundraise, design a brand, exercise teamwork, and build and program robots to perform tasks against competitors.

Texas Torque consists of students from College Park, The Woodlands, and Oak Ridge High Schools in Conroe ISD. The team works out of a lab they call Texas Torque World Headquarters with lead mentor Scott Rippetoe, a physics teacher at the Academy of Science and Technology. Since the game kickoff back in January, members of Texas Torque have worked to create a robot that uses a tilting shooter mounted to an elevator to shoot discs into goals with high precision. The robot can elevate to block opponents attempting to score and uses two small “claws” to climb up a pyramid in the closing seconds of each game. The team is basically a student-run engineering company with sub-teams handling mechanical construction, computer-aided design, electronics, and programming. Other sub-teams handle community outreach, media, public relations, and scouting of other teams. Corporate sponsors Halliburton, Innovation First, and Anadarko contribute thousands of dollars to the team each year.

The Woodlands-based robotics team is currently focused on off-season activities and enjoying their recent win at the FRC World Championships. “This is the finest group of people I have ever worked with. The team is successful because we have the best group of kids in the world. Texas has every reason to be proud of this group of hard-working high school students aspiring to become engineers that came out on top,” Rippetoe said.

Above is a video of the final World Championship Match and below is a link to the celebration and interviews with the winning students.