Students from 11 GCS high schools competed at the North Carolina FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Aggieland Championship on Saturday at North Carolina A&T State University, and the team from Southeast High took second place as well as a top award for team spirit. Southeast was also represented as one of three teams in the Finalist Alliance.

The Southeast team, Art's Legacy, was ranked second after a full day of competition and also received the first-place Motivate award, which recognizes the team that shows the most enthusiasm and encouragement about FTC. Team members demonstrated gracious professionalism, a tenet of the FTC philosophy, by mentoring other teams and helping them strengthen their robotics programs.

Other winners at Saturday's event were The Early College at Guilford's Wannabe Strange team, which placed fourth, and Northern High's Irrational Doorkeepers, which finished eighth. Team Prion from Grimsley High earned the first-place Connect award, given to the team that has been most skillful at outreach and community relations.

FIRST Tech Challenge gives high school students a chance to design, build and program robots to compete against other robots in an alliance format against other teams. The structure is designed to encourage sportsmanship, as teams will be asked to both compete against each other and cooperate with each other, something the organization calls "coopertition."

Other rankings at the championship were: • Southwest High's Super Effective team, 11th place • Weaver Academy's Ninja Pirates, 13th place • Smith High's Golden Eagles, 14th place • Western High's Fighting Hornets, 15th place • The Middle College at A&T's Aggies, 16th place • The Academy at Smith's LOCS, 21st place • Grimsley's Team Prion, 24th place • Eastern High's Sub Zero Robotics, 28th place

For more information, click on the link below.

http://www.usfirst.org/