McMINNVILLE, Ore. — After competing in the FIRST Championship in Houston this spring, a Yamhill County robotics team affiliated with the Oregon State University 4-H Youth Development Program visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The setting was somewhat familiar for the NerdHerd team, which works out of a former classroom at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville.
“We’re a pretty small team, with 12 students. We have a smallish shop, yet we made it pretty far.”
But the scale of the FIRST Championship — an international youth robotics competition organized by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) — was eye-opening for Jacob Wojcik, the team’s co-captain and lead programmer.
“It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Wojcik, a recent Newberg High School graduate. “There were hundreds upon hundreds of teams from across the world in a massive venue.”
More than 600 teams advanced to the event in mid-April. Competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition, NerdHerd was placed in the Curie division with a robot they named Notezart.
After two days of qualifying matches, the team was ranked 25th. During “alliance” selection on the third day, NerdHerd was chosen by the Alpha Bots from Michigan as one of three teams competing together in the division playoffs.
The alliance went 1–2 and was knocked out in the third round.
“We’re a pretty small team, with 12 students,” Wojcik said. “We have a smallish shop, yet we made it pretty far.”
Finishing in the top third of the competition “was a great success,” said Jessica Johnson, NerdHerd’s No. 2 lead coach. “We built a really good robot that was fairly reliable,” she said, adding that another key was “keeping it simple. Going for what we knew we could do.”
From high school team to 4-H club
Youth robotics in Yamhill County traces back to 2011, when a FIRST Robotics Competition team formed at McMinnville High School’s Engineering and Aerospace Sciences Academy. The next year, NerdHerd made its first appearance at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis — flown there by Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum founder Del Smith in his private jet.
In 2017, NerdHerd transitioned from a school-based team to a 4-H club, which opened the door for students from across the county. Since then, membership has grown, especially from Newberg, including Wojcik.
“I’ve been interested in robotics for the majority of my life,” he said. After his high school team dissolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, he joined NerdHerd as a sophomore.
As lead programmer, Wojcik writes the code that controls the robot during the 15-second autonomous period at the start of each match. After that, a student driver takes over.
“I’ve learned a lot about 4-H from presenting with other 4-H groups at our county fair,” Wojcik said.
He will attend Oregon State University in the fall to study physics and chemistry.
Building skills and community awareness
Johnson has coached NerdHerd for about a decade, beginning when her son was a team member at McMinnville High School. She helped support the transition to 4-H.
“4-H was welcoming and accommodating and a great program,” she said.
One of the team’s strengths, Johnson said, is its engagement beyond competition.
“It’s not just about building the robot,” she said. “We do presentations. We recruit. We need to get younger kids engaged and interested so when they get older, they come looking for us.”
Previously titled 4-H robotics team from Yamhill County among the best at world competition
