Hahnville High School’s Robotics FIRST team, known as the Tiger Bots, competed in this year’s FIRST Bayou Regional Competition at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner on March 16 and 17. After qualification matches, the Hahnville robotics team formed an alliance with Texas High School’s FIRST team, the T-Bots, from Texarkana, and Woodlawn High School’s FIRST team, the Panthrobotics, from Baton Rouge. The alliance successfully competed through the quarter finals of the competition.

The Hahnville High School’s team robot was driven by Jake Noel, Daniel Seal and Max Eastepp. Noel led the team as team captain. The team’s successful season was made possible by the generous contributions given by Arkema Inc., Jacobs Technology, Packaging Enterprises LLC, Mississippi River Equipment and Monsanto. 

FIRST stands for “For Inspirtation and Recognition of Science and Technology,” and was the brainchild of Dean Kaman, inventor of the Segway. FIRST Robotics was founded in 1989 with the purpose of giving high school students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with sciences such as; computer programming, electrical engineering, physics, pneumatics, and structural engineering. 

The idea is to give high school students the opportunity to be as inspired about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math as they are sports.

FIRST is based around a six week design and build season in which teams are given a kit of parts and a game-like task to perform. The FIRST robotics competition provides students with an invaluable experience through which they are able to apply their knowledge and innovation in both designing and building a robot.