School Information
Student Life
Departments
Faculty & Staff
Parents
Quick Links
Skip to content
Robotics Club - Aperture Science
On our robotics team, we build and program robots to compete at tournaments within the F.I.R.S.T. program; For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology.
Click here to learn more about F.I.R.S.T.
The club was started in the fall of 2011 and has been going strong ever since. We are always ready to face the next challenge. Our team's name/number is Aperture Science Team/5064 and we are based in Elon, North Carolina. You can connect with us on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/westernrobotics ), Instagram (@wahs_robotics), or Twitter (@wahs_robotics). You will find many pictures and information on these sites about the team, what we have achieved, and how much fun we had during our seasons.
Our team consists of coaches, mentors, and a group of all high school students from several schools in the Alamance-Burlington School System. The team is mainly driven by the students and we meet twice a week for two hours in the early stages of the season. As we approach tournaments, we meet more often as needed. This club requires a lot of dedication and hard work, two key factors to our success.
click here.. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VIDEO to watch our matches from the Championship
Technical support for the robotics club comes from:
Dr. Jochen Fischer- a parent, electrical engineer, and adjunct professor at Elon University
Joel Hollingsworth- a parent and chair of the Computer Science Department at Elon University
Darrell Gauthier- a parent, mechanical engineer, and CEO of International Inventory Management, a local engineering firm
click here.. Aperture's Sponsorship Video to see why you should sponsor our team!
2019/2020 Season Challenge- Skystone (with intro)
Season dates and events: TBA
2018/2019 Season Challenge- Rover Ruckus (with intro)
Worlds
In the World Championship last April, our team won the title of 2018/2019 WORLD CHAMPIONS along with our alliance partners from Florida and Kansas! All of our long hours, hard work, and dedication over the years finally paid off! We are forever grateful for this accomplishment and for all of the people who have provided us the opportunity to reach this dream. Thank you to our sponsors, coaches, mentors, and families!
click here 2019 FTC Matches to watch all of our Worlds matches
Qualifier 2
Qualifier 1
States
States will take place February 10, 2018
2017/2018 Season Challenge - Relic Recovery (with intro)
States
2016/2017 Season Challenge - Velocity Vortex (with intro)
States
So far, our team has had many successes! We competed at the State Championship which was held at NC A&T State University. There, we placed 2nd overall! We were awarded Finalists Alliance Captain (NC State Runner Up), 2nd Place Control Award, and 2nd Place PTC Design Award!
Our Finalists Alliance Captain positioning got us a bid to move onto the next level of competition...Super Regionals!
Super Regionals
We then competed in Athens, Georgia at the South Super Regional Competition. We ended up in 2nd place in our Qualifying Matches with only one loss! We were then chosen by the 1st Place team to compete with in the Elimination Matches. We won our entire division which advanced us to compete with the winner of the other division for the South Super Regional Grand Championship. WE WON!! During our final match of the Grand Championship, our alliance set a new WORLD RECORD for un-penalized points scored! Our title as South Super Regional Overall Champion got us a bid to the World Championship in Houston, Texas.
See you soon Houston!!
Worlds
At the World Championship in Houston, Texas, there were 128 teams present from 31 countries all over the world; China, Israel, Italy, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and many more. The teams were split into two divisions of 64 teams. After qualifying matches, we placed 19th with a record of 5-4. We were then, unexpectedly, selected by the 4th place team to compete with for the Finals! For the Semi-Finals, it was best out of three matches. We won the first match but lost the final two, therefore officially ending our season. After the World Champion was determined and all the matches were over, we were ranked 8th in the world!!
While at Worlds, we were able to talk to many large companies and organizations at the Innovation Fair; most of these companies are large sponsors to the FIRST program. Companies such as Qualcom, IBM, Nvidia, Google, Disney, Rockwell Collins, and many others. These companies were here to talk to all of the students and possibly even begin recruiting and offering scholarships!
A few of our team members were selected to be Student Ambassadors. This title allowed students to give tours to anyone from the public who was interested in learning more about F.I.R.S.T.. These tours periodically included VIPs from major companies and organizations. In particular, one of our team members was asked to give a tour to the CEO of Lockheed Martin!
8th in the World!!
Samantha Luu is our only senior so this was her last robotics competition for the rest of her life!
We wish her the best of luck in her future!