What a weekend!

We traveled to Albany, GA this weekend to compete in the week one Peachtree District Qualifier. We had the most successful event that the Techno Titans have competed in since the program began in 2005.

On Thursday we arrived at the hotel, had dinner, and a scouting meeting. We then went straight to bed (we're not lying mentors! We promise, we slept!). Odin, our newly named robot, was working great. Drive team was well prepared, and we were excited for competition.

After 12 rounds of play (a few we missed due to a bad solder connection in one falcon motor), we were ranked second. The #1 ranked team, FRC 6919 (The Commodores) chose us to partner with them for the playoff rounds. The third team chosen for Alliance 1 was FRC 5828 (Westover Robotics). Alliance 1 went undefeated through the playoff rounds, and WE WON IT ALL! This is the first time since 2014 the Techno Titans have brought home a Blue Banner for being on the winning Alliance.

Not only did our robot perform well, our team and teammates brought home several fantastic awards:

• Our presentation team had a wonderful interview, and the Techno Titans won the FIRST Impact Award! This is the most prestigious award FIRST gives out. It honors a team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. You can watch our Impact Award team video here.

• Anjali Y. became a semi-finalist for the Dean's List Award. She now advances to the Peachtree District Competition in April. Dean's List nominees are students who lead their teams and communities to increase awareness of FIRST and its mission while achieving technical expertise and success.

• Our Safety Captain for the event, Mariangel M., won the Safety All-Star Award, which is a peer nominated award. Three other teams attending the event named Mariangel!

• Our mentor, Theresa Dixon, became a semi-finalist for the District Woodie Flowers Award, which is a student nominated award that focuses on communication, inspiration and motivation. She will compete at the Peachtree District Championship in April.

Being on the winning alliance and the Impact Award both automatically qualifies our team for the District Championship in April! We will continue to work to make Odin stronger over the next two weeks. We have a some minor repairs and autonomous paths to improve before the Gwinnett event on March 18 & 19.