WEST BLOOMFIELD ROBOTICS starts off the year with the introduction of a new game at the Oakland Schools Conference Center. OCCRA (Oakland County Competitive Robotics Association) is a program supported by the OSEF (Oakland Schools Education Foundation) that encourages students to participate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) learning competitions through robotics. Every year, they design a game for robotics teams in Oakland County. Throughout the year, WB will compete with different schools using this game design. Each school is responsible for buying their own supplies and building the game pieces.

This year, the game is called Over n’ Out. The purpose of this game is to get the balls into a high or low goal, on the near or the far side of the field depending on your alliance. Robots controlled by students are holding the balls in order to make this happen. They have the option of either scoring in the high goal or the low goal; the robots can be used to make these goals and block them too. Natalia Luna, Robotics Member, says “this definitely requires more defensive strategy than last year” in reaction to the new game.

WB Robotics will be working all year to build and continually improve their robots in order to meet the needs of the competition. Their dedication to staying after school every day to work on this game shows the resilience that robotics members possess. With the guidance of Robotics President Salice Brown, WB will be right on track to winning their tournaments.