{"id":9195,"date":"2018-10-12T18:10:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T18:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9195"},"modified":"2018-10-12T18:10:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T18:10:26","slug":"invasion-of-the-robots-hestec-kicks-off-at-pharr-events-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9195","title":{"rendered":"Invasion of the Robots: HESTEC Kicks Off at Pharr Events Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Amanda L. Alaniz<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

PHARR, TEXAS \u2013 <\/strong>More than 40 energy-filled middle and high school robotics teams from across the Rio Grande Valley competed in a quadrathon challenge at the Pharr Events Center to start off UTRGV\u2019s annual\u00a0Hispanic, Engineering, Science and Technology<\/a>\u00a0(HESTEC) Week.<\/p>\n

The Oct. 1 competition started at 9 a.m., as students from as far as Laredo pitted their robots against competing teams.<\/p>\n

Each of the 44 teams was in charge of building its own robot out of\u00a0Lego<\/a>\u00ae parts and programming it to compete in a number of competitions, including a maze, going up and down a ramp, and a search and rescue.<\/p>\n

There was a station available for the teams to test out their robots and make any necessary changes.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Forty-four energy-filled middle and high school robotics teams from across the Rio Grande Valley competed in a quadrathon challenge at the Pharr Events Center on Monday, to kick off UTRGV\u2019s annual Hispanic, Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) Week. Students from as far as Laredo pitted their robots against competing teams. Each team was in charge of building its own robot out of Lego\u00ae parts and programming it to compete in a number of competitions, including a maze, going up and down a ramp, and a search and rescue. Photo: Paul Chouy\/UTRGV<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018BUILT, NOT BOUGHT\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seventh-grade science teacher Danny Gonzalez, of Veterans Middle School in Donna, said the field of robotics is important to his students because they can see what they built, learn from their mistakes and make it better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of building. They see how important the design is before, and then how is affects execution at the end. And it usually never turns out the way they think it\u2019s going to turn out. So you have to go back, redesign, modify. Sometimes, it works out even better than anticipated. They\u2019re constantly learning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Warrior Bots, the team Gonzalez coaches, has its own accomplishments outside of HESTEC: They turned an\u00a0electric wheelchair into a T-shirt launcher<\/a>\u00a0used for pep rallies at school.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s president is eighth-grader Melanie Salazar.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing part of the robotics team is fun,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s rewarding and helps show what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milton Hernandez, program coordinator with UTRGV\u2019s Division of Governmental and Community Relations, was in charge of putting together Robotics Day. Along with his team, they are in charge of creating the competitions.<\/p>\n

He stressed the importance of HESTEC for the university, the community and area schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be walking around during competitions and I\u2019ll see a school struggling, and I\u2019ll see a different school from another city helping them out. I think it\u2019s important, because it brings that family concept, but it also shows you the importance of STEM,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fernando Perales, an eighth-grader from Memorial Middle School in Edinburg, said his father inspired him to get involved with the robotics team.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad took me to his job and told me to take apart a motor. I tried it, and I was able to do it. I put it back together. I broke some parts, but I tried to fix it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think robotics is not only about competition. It\u2019s about having fun \u2013 winning or losing, medal or no medal, trophy or no trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

HESTEC continues throughout the week, ending with Community Day on Oct. 6. For a full schedule of events visit\u00a0www.utrgv.edu\/HESTEC<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Amanda L. Alaniz PHARR, TEXAS \u2013 More than 40 energy-filled middle and high school robotics teams from across the Rio Grande Valley competed in a quadrathon challenge at the Pharr Events Center to start off UTRGV\u2019s annual\u00a0Hispanic, Engineering, Science and Technology\u00a0(HESTEC) Week. The Oct. 1 competition started at 9 a.m., as students from as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9197,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9195\/revisions\/9197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}