PrepaTec Colima wins Safety Animation Award at FIRST Robotics

The HORUS 6348 robotics team from PrepaTec Colima has won the international “2021 Safety Animation Award”, organized by FIRST and sponsored by Underwriters Laboratory (UL).

This award is given to the team that best depicts the importance of safety in the workplace, in a video of up to 40 seconds, through different principles such as respect, kindness, inclusion, acceptance, and teamwork.

It’s the first time a Mexican team has won this global award since 2007, the year Mexico first participated in the international FIRST Robotics Competition.

This major achievement for the HORUS 6348 robotics team from PrepaTec Colima was announced with the message, “We have a winner for the UL-sponsored FIRST 2021 Robotics Competition Safety Animation Award”.

“Winning on your first attempt is very complicated, but not impossible,” said Armando Meza López, coach for the HORUS 6348 robotics team from PrepaTec Colima, when he found out the results of this competition.

The award sets a historical precedent for the Tec and the country, since this group of young people from Colima became the first Mexican and Latin American team to receive this distinction.

“We’re young people who are making the most of the opportunities we receive, who are looking beyond what we have to hand, and we want other young people to catch the bug of thinking this way,” said the HORUS team.

A different competition this year

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a robotics competition for high school students, which every year brings together the best teams to build their own robots for a specific challenge. However, this year’s COVID-19 pandemic means a change in everyone’s circumstances.

So, experiencing FIRST at home has been a challenge for lovers of robotics and the competition to keep on innovating, now through virtual experiences.

Such is the case of the “Safety Animation Award“ competition, sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a US certification and safety consulting firm.

FIRST directors point out that strong teams create an environment where everyone feels safe to do their job, so the video should reflect kindness, respect, inclusion, acceptance, or teamwork.

How did they get here?

For HORUS 6348, the “Safety Animation Award” represented the opportunity to prove themselves in new disciplines.

Therefore, the HORUS team ventured into this challenge for the first time, with the goal of making a 40-second video that captured the team’s essence, which was ready to shine once more.

They first thought about making an eye-catching video with specific animations, but getting hold of an editing program was difficult, so this option was ruled out.

That’s how one of the team members came up with the idea of making a stop motion video with Lego and Playmobil pieces.

Despite their inexperience, the team believed in themselves and pushed forward, putting their creativity into each scene.

Meza López noted that they spent many hours planning and working, in which each team member played an important, strategic, and fundamental role in achieving the objective.

How they experienced the accomplishment

“I was notified by FIRST that they’d selected three finalist teams, and that 6348 (HORUS) was the winner,” said the coach.

Euphoria and joy filled the hearts of everyone who’s a part of HORUS. The coach says that the importance of the award hasn’t sunk in yet, since they competed against hundreds of teams from all over the world.

What’s in store for HORUS 6348

It doesn’t just end there, HORUS’s mission is to encourage PrepaTec teams to take part and become more involved in these types of activities, and to share achievements and experiences.

HORUS wants to promote not only the team’s name, but also PrepaTec’s name, because a team’s accomplishment should actually benefit the entire community.

“Play your chess pieces so that you aren’t left with pawns or bishops, but only kings and queens, because they’re the ones with the potential to make magnificent moves,” coach Armando concluded for CONECTA.

HORUS continues flying high

Since it was formed in 2016, PrepaTec’s HORUS 6348 team has stood out year after year, for managing to feature among the winners of competitions organized by FIRST.

In 2017, during their first competition, they secured a pass to the international competition.

They were also given the “Rookie All-Star Award” for being the newcomers of the year.

In 2018, they got through to the international final of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), by winning the “2018 Chairman’s Award” category.

In 2019, they went straight through to the international robotics competition sponsored by NASA.

In 2020, they won second place at the FIRST regional competition, as well as the “Excellence in Engineering Award” for the attractive and functional nature of their project.

FIRST Robotics Competition

The For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition is the world’s largest robotics competition for high school students. Each year, teams compete to build robots that face new challenges every year.

PrepaTec teams such as LamBot from San Luis Potosi, Nautilus from Mexico City, Voltec from Monterrey, and Roult from Laguna stand out for making a name for Tec de Monterrey at FIRST tournaments.

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