Robotics team wins big
Team picks up awards as they travel
Seniors Greg Jenks, Ashutosh Priyadarshy and Bethany Kroese double check their robot before the regional competition in Ohio. Team 612 only made it to the quarter finals in the regional competition, but advanced to the national competition in Atlanta after winning the Chairman's award. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
By Nejla Izadi
March 25, 2008
The Chantilly Robotics Team traveled to Cleveland, Ohio March 20–22 for the Buckeye Regional Competition at Cleveland University, where they walked away with the Chairman’s Regional Award. The team competed against 45 teams from around the country and Canada.
They advanced to the international level and competed against 300 other teams in Atlanta, GA from April 17–19, where they placed 13th in the toughest division.
“It’s all a competition sponsored by FIRST, which stands for ‘For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,’” said senior captain of the robotics team, Ashutosh Priyadarshy.
The senior marketing director of the team, Jasmine Manalel, said that the Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious award given by FIRST. It is an award that has to do with what the team does with scientific and technological skills they have learned to benefit the greater community.
“Our robot only made it to quarterfinals,” Manalel said. “But to get to Atlanta, you have to either win the actual competition or win the Chairman’s Award.”
Manalel said that the team started the First Lego League, which is a robotics competition for surrounding elementary and middle schools, and students must build robots using Legos. About 20 teams competed this year. The team also does FIRST STEP (Students in Technology Expanding Possibilities), which deals with the team’s biomedical contributions.
“We’re also starting Engineers Without Borders, and we’re making solar-powered fans for houses in El Salvador to reduce air pollution,” Manalel said.
The process starts every January when the Game Design Committee (GDC) releases a game. The team is also sent a kit of parts, and has six weeks to design, build, test, prototype and program the robot before they ship it to the regional competition. Each year the game changes, and the teams must build a robot to meet the challenges presented by the GDC.
“This year we had a racetrack with a center divider and a monkey bar overpass,” Priyadarshy said. “You have 40-inch track balls, which are like really big yoga balls, and you have to pick them up and throw them over the overpass. The challenge was that your robot had to start in a configuration that was smaller than the ball. It’s also a challenge because the ball weighs about 10 pounds.”
During build season, which is the six weeks prior to competition, the team meets every day after school.
“We have three professional engineers who come and mentor us,” Priyadarshy said.