Students have winning routine

June 2008
Hunt County Business Spectrum

Do you know who the Robowranglers are?  Sponsored by Innovation First, Inc., and L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, this group consists of Greenville High School students, teachers, and engineers from its sponsoring companies.  Each year, the Robowranglers build a robot that is entered in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.  John Vielkind-Neun, the lead engineer for the team, has won awards for his coaching of the team.  V-Neun works for RackSolutions, which is sponsor of the team, along with L-3 Communications.  The group, which started in 1992, has just won the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championship in Atlanta, GA.  Along with the championship award, the Robowranglers have been recognized by the Greenville City Council and Mayor Tom Oliver with a proclamation in their honor.

According to the Robowranglers website, this group's main goal is to "enable the students to take classroom concepts from the math and science fields and apply them to a real world situation."

When asked why the Robowranglers are an asset to Greenville ISD, Brad Press, Director of Community Relations for GISD, he answered, "This team is not only able to compete on the district level, the county level, the statewide level, and the national level, but this team is able to compete world-wide, with seven different nations, and beat them."

Along with being beneficial to GISD, the Robowranglers are a definite asset to the Greenville community.  Brad Press calls these students "uniquely prepared when they enter the workforce."

While the students may not be ready to enter the workforce immediately after graduation, they are still in possession of valuable skills that will further their careers when they do enter the workforce for companies like L-3 Communications Integrated Systems.

The Robowranglers are now holding tryouts for next year's team.  For more information about this award-winning team, visit the Robowranglers' website at www.robowranglers.com.

This story was written for Spectrum by TAMU-Commerce public relations student Destiny Whitley, who is an intern with the Greenville Chamber of Commerce.

Team148.org  |  Robowranglers.com