It was an exciting week of robotics competitions at the Greater Kansas City Regional!  Winnovation was awarded with the Excellence in Engineering Award, for our six wheel swerve drive (a first in FIRST Robotics), powerful kicking mechanism, and arm system that allows the robot to be suspended from a tower in the middle of the playing field. 

Three top Winnebago athletes signed their letter of commitment to continue their cross country, track and soccer careers at the collegiate level.

Alex Thompson will continue his track and field success with the University of Wisconsin at Madison. On Thurs., Feb. 18 at noon in the Winnebago High School Library he signed a letter of intent with UW Madison. Thompson holds the Class A State Record in discus as a two-time state champion.

A fast and furious finish to the Winter Sports season is upon us. If you are waiting for the perfect day to catch a game you better get it in gear because time is running out. Good luck to all of our post-season competitors and coaches as the state title runs begin!

Winnebago Girl’s Basketball Coach Judy Krause celebrated her 400th win on Sat., Jan 30 against the Oregon Hawks. She will receive the game ball from her 400th win and a celebration in her honor will take place at the home game Friday, Feb. 5 at 7:00 p.m.

The tower is in the process of being welded and the frame has been returned from welding. The auxiliary is being attached to the frame. The end game piece construction has been started. In trials, the auxiliary has been successful. Halfway through build season our goals for week four are to have a completed tower, and to have a moving bot! Thanks to everyone for bringing great food!

Parts were sent out to be water jetted and the frame was welded for the chassis. The auxiliary was prototyped and the field bumps and goals were completed. The team went out to assist the Oregon RoboHawks, team 2364, with programming and design ideas. We also checked on the Boone County 4-H Robotics, team 3352 (rookies to FIRST Robotics) that we are mentoring this year.

The January issue of Servo Magazine has just been issued and features members of the Winnovation Robotics team, John Ratzenberger, and Snuggles the Robot.