Members of Brush High School’s Hacksaw robotics team took fourth place in field competition at the state level in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge.

Team Hacksaw competed against 23 other teams to take fourth place in field competition. The team also won the Judge’s Award for its innovative and robust robot design. Team members initially won the field competition in the FIRST Tech Challenge Northeastern Ohio Qualifier in January, ranking seventh overall.

Students are judged on their robot design, fundraising and software design, as well as the robot’s performance in games against other robots. Brush teams have participated in state competition since the club’s founding in 2002 and went on to world competition in 2003, 2007 and 2009.

Pat Checkel, a math instructor at Cuyahoga Community College-East, and her husband, David Fort, a software engineer at Rockwell Engineering, volunteer their time and fundraise for the club.

The Brush Robotics program was founded in 2002 by two Brush High Schoolteachers. At its first competition in 2003, the team won a rookie award and advanced to the championships in Texas. During the team’s first build season, its most sophisticated tool was a hacksaw, which is the name of one team each year.