Kealakehe Robotics

As part of the Eco Tiki Approach our team would like to present the BluePlanet light bulb exchange program. Bring in an old incandescent light bulb and get a new energy-efficient CFL for FREE!! Our goal? Exchanging 1000 light bulbs by the end of this robotics season, help our community, and go green. Whats better? Our robotics team gets 50¢ for each light bulb we exchange… that’s $500 for our whole exchange.

Exchange light bulbs any of our events, competitions, or come in any day to M103 at Kealakehe High School.

We are having our 2nd Annual Ho’ike on Monday May 21st from 4:30-8:00 pm at Kealakehe High School. We will have robotics exhibitions to show off our many different robots! Meet our students and program! We have stories to tell and things to show you.

We are also have a silent auction and food! Please support our robotics team!

Join us to explore the world-class Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) opportunities and accomplishments made by your Kona students and future leaders!

The Tiki Techs participated in the Big Island Regional ROV Competition held at Hilo High School on April 28th. In this competition, teams had to write a 20 paged technical report, create a display board and give a 15 minute presentation to a group of judges. 9 ranger class teams competed in this competition.

We had many problems with our ROV on mission day; our ROV could only ascend, descend and turn left and right. We still scored some points in our missions and received the Aloha Team Spirit Award for our positive attitude. Our technical report, display board and presentation were strong and placed us as the top high school team at the competition.

Kulia i ka nu’u Tikis!

Half of our team leaves tonight to represent our team at the VEX International Competition being held at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. If you live in California, please check out this amazing event and cheer our team on! Win it for the Tikis!

The other half of the team representing the Tikis at the FRC International Competition leave next week Tuesday to St. Louis. Go team 3880! Win it big, Tiki Techs!

We are pre-selling steak fry tickets for $10 until the 23rd of this month! The $10 includes an 8 ounce steak, rice, corn and a bottle of water. The pick up date is May 6th at the KTA downtown.

May 21st we will have our Second Annual Ho’ike with community auction. Our Ho’ike is our culminating event of the year to celebrate our awesome team and say good-bye to our seniors. We will have a silent auction at the event and are looking for items to be donated to help support our team next year.

After an exciting FIRST robotics tournament, with your Kealakehe Tiki Techs in the top 5 almost the whole competition, the Kona based team earned the top honor for a robotics team, NASA’s Engineering Inspiration Award. This award selects a program that inspires future engineers and scientists for bold frontiers like those at NASA. Kealakehe Robotics, mentors to Kahakai and 7 other programs in Kona, are one of just five schools in Hawaii to earn a spot at the FRC Internationals in St. Louis this April.

Impressively, Kealakehe is the only team in Hawaii to make it to the FRC Championship in its first two seasons and 1 of 5 teams in Hawaii with multiple championship appearances (Waialua(9/13), McKinley(6/13), Waiakea(4/8), Kealakehe(2/2), Kalani(2/4)). The team has approximately 2 weeks to raise nearly $40,000. Contributions can be made through the team’s website Kealakeherobotics.org or directly through the high school. The team can also accept securities and annuities transfers. Mahalo nui loa for your support!!!

The Tiki Techs attended the Big Island VEX Robotics Invitational Tournament at Waiakea High School Cafeteria in Hilo. Two of the team’s robots made it to the quarter finals, one going as far as semi finals. The team won the energy award with their cheering. Way to go Tikis!

14 Tiki Techs traveled to Maui on September 30th and captained the winning alliance to a championship and a ticket to the World competition in Disneyland. All four of the robots that were brought to the 32 team, 4 island event were in the top half of the playoff bracket. We were very pleased to have 3 robots in the top 6 of the overall rankings including the championship robot lead by Kully, CJ, and Shoyo.