Bonners Ferry Robotics Team Celebrates 10 Years!

Ten years ago now retired Bonners Ferry High School teacher Edward Katz started up the first robotics team at the school, and today that team continues to flourish and provide unique opportunities for those that get involved. The group, named Alpha+2130, is partnered with a national organization called FIRST which stands for “For Interest and Recognition of Science and Technology.” Through FIRST, the team designs and builds a robot each year and takes it to regional and national competitions to compete against other schools. The team works together from start to finish on design and branding all the way through the build and control during competition. Along the way, a team of 10 local mentors, including group founder Edward Katz and his wife Jill, assist the team. This unique group includes people with backgrounds not just in teaching but in industries such as railway, forestry, automation, design and aerospace. This wide range of professionals not only gives local students someone to learn directly from on their project, but shows them the skills they are learning and participating in can help lead to in-demand jobs here in North Idaho.

Another program that Team 2130 participates in is Zero Robotics. Started in 2009, Bonners Ferry High School was one of only two teams that participated in the inaugural season, and there are now hundreds of teams competing across the country. Students in Zero Robotics learn programming code that solves a challenge put out by the International Space Station. There are several levels of the challenge, and those that come out on top actually get to enter their line of code into the space station’s computers and see their code writing skills in action far out in space. The Bonners Ferry team has taken their codes to space in both 2009 and again in 2012.

While the Zero Robotics competition is done virtually, competitions through the FIRST program are done live and in person. This year the team traveled Calgary, Alberta to put their robot to the test in the FIRST Stronghold competition. While they didn’t come out on top on the battlefield, they did finish a respectable 14th and 2130 did pick up the award for Outstanding Industrial Design and also got to take home a good portion of the competition surface to practice on back at home.

Dozens of individuals and businesses in the community have stepped up to support this team and without the communities help travel to such competitions would not be possible. When you think of Bonners Ferry, “technology hub” isn’t the first thing most think of but many are surprised at the advanced technology our students are learning and utilizing. Even the T-shirt cannon at Badger sports games is designed and tweaked each year by students in this program. FIRST encourages high school students into the fields of science and mathematics, something the United States as a whole continues to fall behind in across the globe. Through the help of the community and local mentors and professionals, the passion for science and engineering is alive and well with students each and every year. If we look back at technology 10 years ago when 2130 was formed and where we are today, it’s even harder to imagine where we’ll be another 10 years from now.

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