By Bill Hardesty | [email protected]

With their robot on its way to Houston, the Cottonwood High Robotics Team, part of the South Salt Lake City Promise program, are making final preparations to compete at the International First Robotic Competition starting April 17.

“[It is] an opportunity to prove to themselves that they can compete with others and learn from it,” Coach Yuri Perez said about the opportunity for his team.

The 13-member team was formed in December 2018. The competition rules were released in January giving the team about six weeks to design, build and test “Underdog.” An appropriate name for the robot and the team.

Ninety percent of the team are refugees from seven countries. With assistance from the community, including engineering expertise, the team received the Rookie All-Star award at the Utah regional competition earlier this month. They competed against 50 teams from California, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah. Now they will compete against 400 teams, but getting there is still a challenge.

Coach Perez estimates it will cost about $2,000 per team member. As of this article, the team is about $6,000 short. For those interested in donating, click on the link below.

https://granitekids.charityproud.org/donate/index/3517