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Competitive robotics returned to the area Aug. 9, with the Dripping Springs Robotics Invitational Palooza (DRIP) at Dripping Springs High School. The event, attended by 19 teams from around the state, reprised the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition “Reefscape” game.
With the main season ending with World Championships in Houston in May, summer is the off season for competitive robotics. Ryan Gibson, Computer Science and Engineering teacher at DSHS, and mentor for host Team 6357 “The Spring Konstant” was one of the event organizers.
“If you take a look at any other school program for developing skills, all of them tend to provide opportunities for the individuals to have an experience outside of the official season to continue to learn and grow their skills,” Gibson said. “Football has 7 on 7, basketball and volleyball have club teams, theater and band tend to have camps. With robotics we want the same thing for these students. A place outside of their season where they can continue to learn, grow, and develop.”
The weekend was a resounding success. Claire Rowan, mentor for team 418 “Purple Haze” from LASA in Austin, was particularly enthusiastic about the opportunities offered to new participants.
“The best part was seeing how much the students enjoyed it,” Rowan said. “We had students who had never driven a robot step into the driver’s station, others learning to make quick repairs under time pressure, and even students who used to be shy giving confident strategy presentations they were proud of. I’m so proud of the growth I’ve seen!”
Dripping Springs was well-represented at the event, the first time both the town’s FIRST Robotics Competition teams met on the field. Team 6357 “The Spring Konstant” ended up captaining their alliance of three teams to second place overall. The winning alliance was led by Team 3847 “Spectrum” from Houston. Team 9577, “Recoil”, made up of home-school, privateschool and non-DSISD students from the area and based at Dripping Springs’s Innovation Treehouse, finished in third place.
