Submitted by Dave Schlingloff
The WHRHS Robotics Team, the RoboWarriors, in their three-team alliance, placed second in the FIRST Robotics Mid-Atlantic Mt. Olive Event on March 5th and 6th. Individually, the team finished 17th out of 39 teams representing local New Jersey and Pennsylvania area high schools.
FIRST, which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” is a not-for-profit charity organization based in Manchester New Hampshire founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is one of several programs run by FIRST. FRC, dubbed a “varsity sport for the mind,” combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology.
Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams of 25 students or more are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program a robot to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors. It is as close to “real world” engineering as a student can get. Professional mentors volunteer their time and talents to guide each team.
The WHRHS Robotics Team 41, the RoboWarriors, had another outstanding performance on April 14th through the 16th at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship at Lehigh University, making it to the quarterfinal round. This excellent showing is a combination of their second place finish at the Mt. Olive District Event and first place at the Montgomery Event.
During the competition at Lehigh, Team 41 had a strong performance in their 12 qualifying matches with a very impressive 10 wins and 2 losses. Going into the playoff round, they were the 8th ranked team out of 60 at the competition.
Being in the top 8 put them in a position to choose the other 2 teams that would form their 3-team alliance. They were, however, chosen by a higher ranked team in the top 8 and decided to accept that team’s offer to join them. Their alliance was defeated in the quarterfinals in 2 tough matches. The RoboWarriors did end the competition on a high note when they learned that their overall performance gave them a ranking of 16th.
(above, back, l-r) Team 41, with their award medals from the Mt. Olive competition: Peter Ponzio (faculty adviser), Joshua Schmidt, Matthew Battipaglia, Brandon Harris, Julian Bisci, Oscar Johansson, Griffith Humphrey, Sameer Howe, John O’Mullan, Anthony Rodrigues, Sean Coleman, Emanuel Savatta, Burcak Coskun, Joshua Gallic, Tyler Kocmond, Matthew Guo, Garrett Dicken (industry mentor) (front, l-r): Jonathan Soldan, Prateek Humane, Julian Lioanag, Neelay Trivedi, Giovanni Savatta, Claire Barrameda, David Schlingloff, Eva Teplitsky, Nicole Regimbal, Derek Prestera.
