The Saint Patrick High School Robotics Team (STRIKER) recently competed in the 2006 FIRST Midwest Regional at the UIC Pavilion on March 17 and 18. The team was a member of an alliance that finished in third place overall, and they took home the Imagery Award. The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The competition shows students that the technological fields hold many opportunities and that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering and invention are exciting and interesting.

This year’s game is called “Aim High.” The object of the game is to shoot balls into two corner goals, and one center goal. Twelve students from Saint Patrick participated in this event. Long time engineering mentor, Ed O’Connor, said, “This is the farthest this team has ever advanced in the final rounds of competition.” The STRIKER alliance finished third out of eight alliances of three teams each. The Saint Patrick STRIKER team also received the Imagery Award. The Imagery Award celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration of the machine and team appearance. The STRIKER theme this year was “The Blues Brothers” for both the robot and the team. Team members dressed like brothers Jake and Elwood Blues from the 1980 film, in dark suits, sunglasses and hats. When asked why they chose “The Blues Brothers” theme, O’Connor stated, “I am always trying to get students to wear safety goggles. At a previous competition, I saw a team with dark safety glasses on. Everyone had then on, and they looked cool. This sparked “The Blues Brothers” idea.

STRIKER started at Saint Patrick High School in 1997. The FIRST Program was brought to Saint Patrick by alumnus Ray Kedzior, president of Lodan Electronics. Lodan Electronics, Motorola, and Craftsman sponsored STRIKER that first year. Lodan sponsored the team for five more years. Since then, Saint Patrick has sponsored the team.