Smile Report: Darlington’s DarBots team takes state title, heading to Texas next for regional showdown

Media release: Darlington’s DarBots robotics team took first place in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) state tournament on Saturday after outperforming 34 other Georgia groups. The team was also awarded the Rockwell Collins Design Award, the tournament’s top engineering prize, by a panel of professional engineers. In the semi-final round, members of Darlington’s robotics team broke a recent record that they set two weeks ago, totaling 590 points. On March 11, the DarBots will travel to San Antonio to compete against the top 70 teams from 12 southern states. The team that wins in Texas will move on to the FTC World Championship later this year. This is the second consecutive year that the DarBots will be competing on the national level. “Our teammates are like a big family,” said senior Moana Kubo. “This was not going to happen without them, and I’m so glad that our efforts were rewarded.” DarBots team members who were present and competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge were freshmen Oliver Wang and Philip Woford; sophomores Ash Herndon, Ian Kinney, and Julian Porto; and seniors Hannah Harper, Katie Hutchins, Moana Kubo, Adam Posey, Stevenson Walker, Tate Wongweeratorn and Yutian Wu. The FIRST Tech Challenge was developed for students to be able to create robots while applying and learning math, science, problem-solving and team-building skills, using science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). For more information, visit www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/f