In 2011, Brain Bots were a "school-competing" team playing during the Gateway season. Back in those days, all the teams of Silver Lake Intermediate School, as well as their sister school, Nature Hill Intermediate School, would just have scrimmage practice tournaments held at either school on various Saturdays during the school year. Being one of the younger and new teams, we educated ourselves throughout the season and have had somewhat of a wide range of experience. One team in our school's program eventually started to compete in qualifying tournaments within Wisconsin. This evolved the club tremendously, having other teams, including ours, to compete at the same level.
Little did we know that when we started competing at these tournaments, we would eventually become one of the top middle school robotics programs in the nation! Until this point, multiple teams from Silver Lake Intermediate, Oconomowoc WI have went on to win Nationals, receiving multiple Excellence Awards at the World Championships, and much more. The Brain Bots are thankful to have strong mentors and support from our school Robotics Club.
During the current 2015-2016 season, Nothing But Net, Brain Bots have had a great start (See Tournaments page). We have already qualified for Nationals this year and hope to eventually qualify for the World Championship in the upcoming Wisconsin State Tournament held in February.
Meet the team (left to right):
Nathan:
My name is Nathan, I am 14 years old, am in 8th grade. I have been doing robotics for 4 years, and I am mainly a programmer and coach. In my free time I like to play the trumpet and video games.
Brady:
My name is Brady Burkle. I am 13 years old, in 8th grade, and I have been in robotics for 4 years. The roles that I have had in robotics have been an engineer for one year, a programmer for three years, and a scout for four years. My hobbies are soccer, reading and video games.
Grace:
My name is Grace Hagen, this year I am in 8th grade, and I am 14 years old. This is my 5th year in robotics. All five years I've been mainly a driver and engineer on our team. In my free time, I like to play the violin, hang out with friends, and downhill ski.