Local robotics team earns Inspire Award at Watt Interleague

The I.F. Robotics team from Vancouver struggled early in the robotics season, but peaked this past weekend at the Watt Interleague, earning one of the top scores in the world. Team members include, from left to right: Venus Payne, Micah Hwang (team captain), Jacob Ouelette, Wyatt Howard, and Daniel Tsay. Photo courtesy of Pete and Charis Hwang

I.F. Robotics, short for I Forgot Robotics, is comprised of high school students from Vancouver on the team that is among the best in the world

The members of the team will never Forget this robotics competition.

I.F. Robotics, a community FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) robotics team from Vancouver, won the Inspire Award for being the best team at the recent Watt Interleague and also learned that it earned the highest OPR (Offensive Power Rating) in the world.

I.F. Robotics is short for I Forgot. It is a reminder that everyone forgets and makes mistakes, and that is OK.

In fact, team captain Micah Hwang noted in a press release that the team had a rocky start to the robotics season in September. But through constant adjustments and updates, the team came up with a winning program.

The Watt Interleague competition was held on Saturday, Dec. 14 in Olympia. Beyond the operations of the robot, team members also spoke about their outreach across the Vancouver community, connecting with local technical companies.

Once the competition began, I.F. Robotics, in a dual alliance with Adna Robotics, scored 343 points in the semifinals, the highest scoring match in the state and fifth highest in the world. I.F. and Adan took the Winning Alliance award for the competition, which featured 34 teams in the state.

The I.F. Robotics team from Vancouver earned the Inspire Award as best team at the recent Watt Interleague competition. Photo courtesy of Pete and Charis Hwang

Then it was announced that I.F. Robotics earned the the Inspire Award.

Hwang said team members were “flabbergasted” when they realized they had the top OPR in the world. OPR is the team’s average ability to score per match. It is the equivalent to OPS in baseball. There are more than 6,000 active FTC teams worldwide, and I.F. Robotics was ranked No. 1.

Hwang said it took three years to build up the team and the skills.

The current team includes Hwang, Wyatt Howard, Jacob Ouelette, Daniel Tsay, and Venus Payne. They are students representing Skyview, iTech, and Union.

The team was co-founded by Micah and his older sister Acacia Hwang. Acacia is now a FIRST volunteer and a freshman studying Computer Engineering at the University of Washington.

The team connected with many companies in the region to broaden its technical sights. I.F. Robotics visited Protech Composites, Applied Motion, Mean Machine, Columbia/Okura, HP, Concept Reality, Intel, Bonneville Power, and DZ & Family Machineworks. The team found sponsors and mentors.

In addition, I.F. Robotics provides STEM outreach and demonstrations of their robot to the community, including events at Esther Short Park in Vancouver, the Clark County Fair, at at local schools. They also gave a demonstration to Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle.

“Doing robotics means quite a lot to me,” Micah Hwang said. “I used to do sports such as cross country and wrestling, but I quit them to do robotics since they conflict with the robotics season. Robotics is my sport.”

For more on the recent success of I.F. Robotics, go to: https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=15CD845485BF404D%21300368&authkey=!AGNO2yzRD-h9RvA