Photo courtesy of Todd Waurio CopperBots team members, Evelyn Robb, left, Cole Miller, center, and coach Todd Waurio, right, tinker with the team’s robot which will appear in the FIRSTrobotics World Championship in Houston on Wednesday. 

CALUMET — The CLK Schools robotics team, Calumet CopperBots, is once again headed to the FIRSTrobotics World Championship in Houston. The team flew to Texas Monday, making its second straight appearance with competition scheduled Wednesday through Saturday. CHS math and robotics instructor, Todd Waurio, is head coach of CopperBots. and said the team’s efforts this year have far exceeded expectations for a program of its size.

“I have nine kids on the team, and a lot of these teams downstate or around the world are so much bigger,” he said. “To take on the challenge [of] building this competitive robot with such a small group, is really challenging because they have to take on so many roles.”

According to Waurio, the team’s success is incredible due to its composition. There is only one senior on the team, the rest are fresh faces composed of underclassmen.

“What they’ve done this year is pretty outstanding and the complexity of this year’s robot is way beyond what we’ve had,” he said. “Our entire robot is automated to focus on the targets, and we don’t have to have any aiming. It’s all done through cameras and different vision targets.”

Calumet’s curriculum offers applied arts courses such as computer-aided-design (CAD), computer science and many different Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. According to Waurio, these educational opportunities help CopperBots team members get ahead.

“The beauty of this program is that it really takes everything in that math and science realm that they’ve learned and our CTE programs,” he said. “But these are really high-level ideas.”

Due to its recent divisional success, CopperBots needed additional funds in order to get to Houston. Its Facebook page posted a link to a GoFundMe campaign which had a target of $15,000 to be raised in just about a week’s time.

Waurio said with the money raised over the funding period, as well as additional checks coming in before press time, CopperBots has enough generous community support to give its best effort at the world competition.

“You know, sometimes these kids don’t really fit the mold in a lot of other places,” he said. “So, to see the community support an academic trip like this is just — it’s just amazing to me.”

CopperBots made an appearance in last year’s world championship. Its goal this year is to break even more ground on the world’s biggest student robotics stage. Waurio said CopperBots has an opportunity to compete against the world’s best teams.

“Our whole goal was to get to the world championship,” he said. “I think we can make a pretty good showing. These kids worked really hard, you know, but hard work doesn’t always lead to success… what they put together this year is something we’re all incredibly proud of.”