Setting three world records and advancing to the State Championship. All in a weekend of work for the Cybugs, a robotics team from Saline Middle School.

On Nov. 2, the Cybugs traveled to the Hartland Qualifier to compete against other robotics teams from Michigan. They won the event. To learn more about this, the Sun Times News connected with Kevin Jones, a mentor for team 10644, the Cybugs.

Jones said in the finals (three matches), the Cybugs “set back-to-back-to-back world record scores.” They also won two additional awards: the Innovate Award and Inspire Award #2. This victory qualifies them for the State Championship in December.

In giving some background on the team and competitions, Jones said US FIRST is an amazing organization that promotes STEM education through robotics competitions with FIRST in Michigan (FiM) coordinating competitions for the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) in the state. He said Michigan is unique in that FTC is only available to middle schoolers while in much of the rest of the world, high schoolers compete.

Jones said FiM hosts 21 qualifier events and five league tournaments, where teams compete to advance to the State Championships. From there, teams vie for a spot at the World Championship.

Saline has four FTC teams:

• 10644 Cybugs
• 10645 Hornet Hackers
• 15555 SWARM
• 26606 HIVE (new team)

Each team is highly ranked.

FIRST in Michigan said the events “are a celebration of the season and a chance for teams to engage in the fun and excitement of competition. Awards are presented for robot build, design, and performance as well as for community outreach and other real world accomplishments.”

Also in Saline, it’s not just the middle schoolers learning, competing and working with robots. Jones said Saline also has:

• Competitive FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams for 4th and 5th graders (one went to Worlds last year).
• A FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team for high schoolers.
• A newly started FIRST Lego League Explorers team for younger kids.

The Cybugs will next be competing on Nov. 9 in Belleville and then on Nov. 22 they will be in the League Tournament at Saline Middle School.

The other teams will also be competing in events on Nov. 9 and Nov. 16 with SWARM competing in Ann Arbor; the Hornet Hackers competing in Belleville and HIVE competing in Bedford.

All teams will also participate in the League Tournament.

The teams are predominantly sponsor-funded. They are always looking for new sponsorship relationships. They’re hosting a Spaghetti Dinner on Nov. 8 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Saline American Legion, featuring a silent auction. 

For more info about sponsorship opportunities email ftcrobotics@salineschools.org

Photo 1: The Cybugs

Photo 2: The Cybugs robot

Photos courtesy of Kevin Jones