HELENA — Fusion, Protostars, and Nano are all Helena based robotics teams that have gained international recognition and will be taking those stages soon, but they are also making an impact here in our community.
Kate Drynan, a member of team Fusion says, “So we start in elementary school up through senior year of high school just kind of involved in STEM and so it is just like a gateway into engineering and career paths.”
The teams have been working on their robots since September and competed at state in February, where these teams qualified or earned invitations to upcoming competitions.
Team Fusion will be competing at the First Tech World Championship in Houston, Texas in April.
Protostars, the other high school team, has been selected to a world premier tournament in Canada in July which features a twist to the competition.
“The cool thing with this event is our coaches and mentors get to make their own robot and they get to compete against us,” Protostar team member Harrison Plummer said.
In the competition, the teams earn points by having their robots put blocks in a basket or hang them on a pipe.
Part of the competition the robots are driven by team members while other times they are autonomous.
Team Nano, the elementary team, will compete against 90 other teams from across the world in Long Beach, California in May.
Rivers Brown, a member of Team Nano says, “I love the engineering and engineering to find solutions to real-world problems.”
Those real-world problem-solving skills are put to use outside of the competition and right here in Helena.
“We help the TSA with a variety of projects, so we are in the basement of the Helena Airport," Kathleen Cook from team Fusion says. "They reach out to us when they have things that they need fixed or problems they have we find solutions for them.”
With the robotics team’s help, Helena has been named a lift cell airport innovation hub.
If you are interested in helping these teams get to their competitions to represent Montana, you can visit the Main Sequence website.
