Mar 28, 2022 2 min read

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Courtesy of Cal U.

Ellie Armitage, 17, a student at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, works on her team’s robot at the FIRST Robotics event in California University of Pennsylvania’s Convocation Center.

Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

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Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

Samhita Gudapati, 16, a member of the Girls of Steel robotics team from Pittsburgh, works on her team’s robot in the pit area of the FIRST Robotics competition, held at California University of Pennsylvania’s Convocation Center.

Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

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Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

Nurfadil Rafiuddin, 17, a student at Gateway Highschool in Monroeville and member of the Quasics robotics team, works on his team’s robot in the pit area.

Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

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Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

Nurfadil Rafiuddin, 17, a student at Gateway Highschool in Monroeville and member of the Quasics robotics team, works on his team’s robot.

Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

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Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

Robotics teams gather to work on their robots in the pit area of the FIRST Robotics competition at California University of Pennsylvania.

Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

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Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

The competition set-up at FIRST Robotics.

Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania

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The 2022 Greater Pittsburgh Regional challenge of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition was held recently at California University of Pennsylvania.

Forty-seven teams from Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Florida, Ohio and West Virginia competed in the March 16-19 event.

“It went very well,” said Dr. Jennifer Wilburn, associate professor in California’s department of computer science, information systems and engineering technology. “We had some really impressive teams. I saw quite a few very good robots.”

Wilburn has served as a judge since 2014.

Teams were tasked with designing robots to accomplish a series of challenges.

Championship qualifying award winners from the competition at Cal U. were:

n Regional Chairman’s Award – Rolling Thunder, Pennfield High School, Battle Creek, Mich.

n Regional Engineering Inspiration Award – Girls of Steel, which included students from a number of Western Pennsylvania high schools including Canon-McMillan, Baldwin, Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and South Fayette.

n Regional winners receiving championship qualifying awards – Byting Bulldogs of Romeo High School of Rome Michigan and Team RUSH of Clarkston (Mich.) High School.

n Wildcard winner – Bison Robotics of Beachwood (Ohio) High School.

The championship round is scheduled for April 20-23 in Houston, Texas. Teams can qualify to earn more than $80 million in college scholarships.