XBC Impact Story: Robotics Rockstars

Last year, they went to the world championship; this year, they are setting their sights on that same distinguished goal. Xavier’s Xcentrics robotics team’s league season is over and now they are onto the state championship.

“This is my sixth year coaching this team and I have to say this is by far the most impressive team yet,” Robotics Moderator Mrs. Stacy Mickelson said. “These students have worked since last May to design their robot using CAD (Computer Aided Design) software and they’ve been making improvements ever since.”

In order to compete at the high level they do, the robotics team has several costs; the two main costs being the registration fees and the parts for the robot. 

  “We get five league meets and a league championship with our first registration fee. If we make it on, every round you qualify for has a new registration fee and a new cost,” Mrs. Mickelson said.

The Xavier Booster Club provides some of the funding for the robotics team, which mostly goes toward these registration fees. 

“The booster club provides us with a percentage of that yearly budget,” junior Justin Korbel, hardware lead, said. “Because of this, we can spend more time doing robot things instead of having to go out and do fundraising.”

Due to these contributions and others, including those from Xavier parents, Collins Aerospace, and Iowa Fluid Power, Xavier Xcentrics was able to implement a new coding system this year.

“The team has been trying to program with a new style, it is called Odometry,” Mrs. Mickelson said. “They are using different encoders, which counts movements of the robot to be more accurate about where the robot is on the field so they can get more points. The programming is much more organized than in years past and the students are stepping outside their comfort zone to learn these new aspects.”

At meets, the team gets points by completing tasks, such as stacking blocks into towers with their robot during the allotted time. 

“The students have never had a robot that can do much vertically, but this year, they are making towers 3 to 4 feet tall (so far),” Mrs. Mickelson said.

While completing these tasks, the team works alongside and against other teams. 

“Matches are played in alliance form-each team is paired with another team randomly, and in years past, our students seemed to rely more on their alliance members to help score in matches,” Mrs. Mickelson said. “This year, they seem to be one of the leaders in scoring points in matches.”

It takes many donations to make a robot worthy of the First Tech Challenge.

“We are mostly funded by private contributions, but we also receive some of our budget from our $100 participation fee and grants from other businesses and corporations,” Korbel said.

The robotics team would love to continue to gain stronger visibility with Xavier’s Booster Club and their participating businesses and corporations, especially as they grow in attendance and achievements. 

“When students have access to finances, they are able to look into more opportunities and they are not as limited. In years past, when they were creating ideas, some of their creativity had to be stifled due to unrealistic ideas after looking into finances,” Mrs. Mickelson said. “This year, because of donors, they were able to completely redesign the robot.”

These changes and donations allowed the Xavier Xcentric’s robotics team to be on the winning alliance in their League Championship, where they also won the First Place Inspire Award. Following this, they were on the winning alliance in the Super Qualifier Championship. 

To support the Xavier Xcentrics, you can connect with Mrs. Stacy Mickelson at [email protected], the Robotics Moderator, and plan to attend the Iowa Championship, state competition, on Saturday, February 29 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Cedar Rapids.