Earlier this month, the Chicago Connectory hosted “Team Axiom,” Chicago’s Northside College Prep High School’s robotics team to participate at their first travel competition in Peoria, Ill and a local competition in Chicago. 

During the competitions, participants competed with other robotic teams from around the world in timed matches to complete a variety of tasks, including object stacking and obstacle traversing.

The team performed well in both competitions. They finished 21st place out of 40 teams in Peoria, and they finished 20th place out of 54 teams in the Chicago competition.

“We are very proud of our plucky little team,” said Douglas Pancoast, Chicago Research & Development Lead for the Hermes Urban Mobility Strategy Group. “They are totally student driven and organize, design, build, and drive the robot and scout opposing teams, all through their own motivation, not to mention a heavy high school course load.”

Cora Pancoast, Douglas’ daughter and one of the leaders of Team Axiom said that this is one of their most competitive years, and their robot was robust enough to survive two competitions.

Douglas added that the Chicago Connectory helped provide inspiration for the team.

“The Chicago Connectory offered the space, catering and brainstorming materials for Team Axiom at the beginning of the season when they had their initial project design meeting,” he said. “There was a lot of great energy, which led to great early design concepts and a great robot.”