Dawgs

On November 13, 2021, the Watchdog Robotics team traveled to the Swiftel Center in Brookings, South Dakota, to compete in the Jackrabbits BEST robotics competition.  Coached by Mrs. Baer and Mrs. Neuman, the team competed in all 5 prongs of the competition for the BEST award.  For this, they built a robot that competed on Saturday, wrote an engineering notebook, created a booth to promote both their company and their robot, gave a marketing presentation where they pitched the sale of their product to potential “buyers,” and participated in the games with great spirit and sportsmanship.  Students created and presented everything with the adults only involved for the oversight of safety.  The students elected Izzy Beeson as CEO of Marketing and Chase Neuman as CEO of Manufacturing.  Delivering the marketing presentation were Ciara Neuman, Noah Halvorson, Izzy Beeson, and Chase Neuman.  Marketing our company in the booth were Ciara Neuman, Izzy Beeson, Adam Wirth, Jordan Monroe, Eli Schaap, Qeleigh Neuman, and Aiyana Pickner. 

Thirteen teams participated on Saturday with 4 teams moving on to the next level in Denver.  Representing our team as drivers and spotters were George Neuman with Noah Halvorson and Chase Neuman spotting, Mick Lindstrom with Trevin Fahlberg spotting, Trevin Fahlberg with Noah Halvorson spotting, Chase Neuman with Eli Schaap spotting, Aiyana Pickner with Qeleigh Neuman spotting, and Qeleigh Neuman with Aiyana Pickner spotting.  The robot was programmed by Ciara Neuman and Alex Jensen. The robot competed in all 8 seeding rounds of competition, scoring fairly consistently in the rounds, finishing 10th of 13. The points weren’t enough to move on to semi-finals, but the team represented the school well by cheering on other teams.  The team appreciates the support of the parents and the community.

BEST robotics is a program dreamed up by two Texas Instrument employees years ago.  The idea was to make the competition as exciting as a sporting event with the rigor of a classroom. Students learn to collaborate, research, design, use the engineering process, and meet deadlines.  The competition revolves around helping each other with points awarded for helping other teams.  The students came home excited to create events for younger students and community members that promote these precepts.  This was the 10th competition held at SDSU.  Watchdog Robotics has proudly participated in 7 of those competitions.  


Team.
Row 4 (left to right) Mick Lindstrom, Ciara Neuman, George Neuman, Chase Neuman
Row 3 Jordan Monroe, Trevin Fahlberg
Row 2 Noah Halvorson, Adam Wirth, Aiyana Pickner
Row 1 Izzy Beeson, Eli Schaap
Not pictured: Qeleigh Neuman