The Sherman Oaks CES Engineering and Robotics team are the 2015 National Champions of the Doolittle Institute’s Mini-Urban Challenge which was held May 15th and 16th in Tampa, Florida. Sponsored by the Doolittle Institute, the Air Force Research Laboratory, John Deere and the Mini- Urban Challenge is a national event that challenges high school students to work on teams to design, build and program a robotic vehicle built from LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kits that can accurately navigate autonomously through a model city. The competition is intended to expose students to the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). High schools from five regions across the U.S. including California, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, and Washington D. C. competed and the first and second place winners from each region were invited to compete in the National Finals. Each team was judged on their technical presentation (30% of the cumulative score) and their autonomous course navigation (70% of their cumulative score).

SOCES had two teams in the national finals. Team 1 consisted of David Carrillo, Justin Chandra and Shannon Lamb. Team 2 consisted of Gabriel Valdes, Ray Sakanoue, Ramon Roco and Artful Rigan. They were supported by their teacher/coach David Hicks.

First place in both the presentation and the overall National Championship was awarded to Team 1. They received $2500 for their National Championship win and $500 for their overall best presentation.

Second place went to the team from Washington D.C. and third place went to the team from Miami, Florida.