Nelson Technology Center robotics team dominates WKU robot competition

The Nelson Area Technology Center students who traveled to WKU on Saturday took top honors in the 2011 Bluegrass Robot Competition. Show above, from left, Elijah Brooks, Matthew McMichael, Tanner Stallings, Jacob Tarrance, Charlie Cantril and Caleb White. (Click photo to enlarge)

STAFF REPORT

Monday, Oct. 24, 2011, 11:38 p.m. — The Nelson County Area Technology Center robotics team won top honors Saturday at a state competition in Bowling Green.

The Nelson ATC team competed in the 2011 Bluegrass Robot Competition hosted by the Engineering Department at Western Kentucky University. Fourteen teams from around Kentucky participated in the event.

The Nelson County youth were students of Charlie Cantrill, the IT teacher at the Nelson County technology center.

The partcipating school groups were given materials to get them started, and they were told of the tasks their robot could complete in order to score points in competition. This year’s scenario involved moving colored balls of varying sizes from one area to a marked scoring area in order to earn points.

The Nelson County team’s robot, named SABR (pronounced SAY-BER), had the highest score after 16 rounds of competition. The top four teams — which included robots from schools in Bowling Green High School and high schools in Barren, Spencer and Nelson counties — then moved to the semi-finals. The final round saw the robot built by the Nelson County team go against the Spencer County team entry, with Nelson County coming out on top.

The Nelson County students who traveled to Bowling Green for the competition included Tanner Stallings, Jacob Tarrance, Matthew McMichael, Elijah Brooks and Caleb White.

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