Minnesota State Fair: Roseville Robotics Team Rolls

Roseville Area High School's highly-touted FireBears Robotics Team #2846 showed off the prowess of its robot in demonstrations Saturday in the Education Building of the Minnesota State Fair. 

The team, which is made up of more than 20 students, put its robot through a series of challenges, directing its machine to, among other things, shoot custom-made basketballs and balance on a wood bridge.

Team members, under the assistance of several mentors, had six weeks this past winter to design and build their robot from a standardized kit. They then participated in two major competitions before the end of the 2011-2012 school year. (Those were the Lake Superior Regional contest in Duluth and 10,000 Lakes Regional contest in the Twin Cities).

Christian Williams, who was co-captain of the FireBears this past school year and a 2012 Roseville High graduate, said the group's biggest challenge was designing the robot.

While Roseville's team likes to do as well as it can in competition, the events are a blend of competition and cooperation or what the participants call "coopertition", Williams said.

On its web page, the FireBears say their goal "is to reinforce education in science, technology, engineering and math to create a better future for everyone."