Senior Mica Houghton, senior Connor Parson, and junior Joseph Levesque are the engineers behind Lincoln Academy’s A-team robot, 8030A. They won the Design Award at the January 21 tournament at Yarmouth High School.

Lincoln Academy sent three robotics teams to a meet at Yarmouth High School on January 21. All three teams qualified for the elimination round of the tournament, and the A team was awarded the tournament’s Design Award, which recognizes an organized and professional approach to the Engineering Design Process, project and time management, and team organization.

Robotics competitions have two rounds – the qualification round and the elimination round. In the qualification round, each of LA’s teams competed in eight matches. In the qualification round teams are randomly assigned a new alliance partner for each match and the two teams work together to score as many points as possible.

At the end of the qualification round team 8030A, LA’s most experienced team consisting of Connor Parson, Mica Houghton, and Joseph Levesque were ranked fifth out of the 27 teams in the competition. Team 8030B, made up of Ben Gilbert, Amelia Starbird, Zane Adams, and Alex Shaw, were ranked 16th overall. Team 8030C is made up of new team members Keiran Roopchand, Noah Garnett, Trevor Hall, Shayla Pheng, and Tillmann Seibel. They were ranked 18th overall at the end of the qualification round, which LA robotics coach Susan Levesque called “an impressive first tournament!”

The second round of the competition is the elimination round. In the elimination round, teams get to pick their alliance partner. Team 8030A allied with a team from Yarmouth. Their alliance made it through the round of 16 and quarterfinal rounds but were eliminated in the semifinal round.

Teams 8030B and 8030C formed an alliance for the elimination round. They successfully made it through the round of 16, but in their quarterfinal match, they were up against 8030A and the Yarmouth team and were eliminated.

“I am immensely proud of all three teams and their representation of Lincoln Academy,” said Ms. Levesque. “It’s impressive that our B and C teams did so well, and the Design Award is very prestigious. It’s acknowledgment and recognition of the hard work Connor, Mica, and Joseph have put into robotics this year.”