The Unveiling of the Robots

The auditorium was packed with participants and friends

Text and photos by Steven H. Robinson

King’s High School in Shoreline sponsored the “5th Annual Unveiling Event” to reveal the 2018 Robots from 15 local schools, Boston Massachusetts, Australia, Israel, Uganda, and Viet Nam. Fifteen of the possible 20 teams presented their robots with actual robots, a prototype, drawings, photos or verbal descriptions of their concepts and designs. Video presentations were given from Boston, Australia and Israel.

Behind the curtain, members of the King's
Cyberknights get their robot ready
to be unveiled

Schools represented this year:

• APEX Seattle Christian (Shoreline); 
• Cedar Park (Bothell); 
• Chill Out (Mountlake Terrace); 
• Cyber Knights Kings High School (Shoreline); 
• Jack in the Box Jackson High School (Everett); 
• Royals 2522 Lynnwood High (Lynnwood); 
• Neutron 125s (Boston, Mass);
• MASH 4077 Edmonds-Woodway High (Edmonds);
• Pronto 3070 Shorewood High (Shoreline);
• Reign 5588 Holy Names Academy (Seattle);
• Royals 2522 Lynnwood High (Lynnwood); 
• SCOTBOTS Shorecrest High (Shoreline); 
• Sonic Squirrels Glacier Peak High (Snohomish); 
• Team Sea Monsters Bellingham High (Bellingham)

The teams are in their sixth week of design and construction prior to the 2018 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology founded 1989) Robotics Competition Season.

Shorecrest Scotbots present for the first time
as an independent team

These teams will be battling it out on the field for a chance to compete at the FIRST Robotics World Championship in April. The World Championship will be held in Houston, Texas this year.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition that gives students real-world engineering experience. Under strict rules, limited resources and an intense, six-week time limit, teams are challenged to build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors.

Out of state and international teams made their
presentations on video

This year’s game is called FIRST POWER UP. It has a retro arcade vibe, where teams are “trapped” in a video game and must defeat the boss in order to escape.

Holy Names made their presentation

Local competitions will be held in Mount Vernon for the first round and winners will advance to a second competition to be held at Glacier Peak High in Snohomish.

Scot Bots organized this year as their own team, splitting from Pronto 3070 at Shorewood. Holy Names Academy, a Seattle girls' school, fielded the only all female team.


FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. Based in Manchester, NH, the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.