MHS Robotics Team Earns 8th Place at Tournament
The Medford High School Robotics Team earned eighth place in the 2012 New England Regional Botball Tournament on Saturday, March 24. Held at the Costello Gym at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, the tournament attracted teams from 22 high schools across New England.
The Medford High Robotics Team also earned third place in the Documentation Category – just behind Andover High School and Chelmsford High School.
During the nine-week period, the team formulates game strategy, design, construct and program two autonomous robots. Teams are required to submit online documentations over three different times. These documents include project planning, mechanical design, software design, lessons learned and survey completion. Teams are also required to do an onsite presentation in front of designated judges – topics include team structure and organization, description of the mechanical design and robot code.
In addition, the Medford High Robotics Team tied for sixth place, one of the finalists in the Double Elimination Round. In the afternoon Double Elimination Rounds, robots from two different teams compete on the game table simultaneously in an effort to score as many points as possible, but also to keep their opponent from scoring.
The Medford High School Robotics Team was created this academic year with the leadership of Ms. Barbara Chyen, the advisor to the group, and Roger Zurawicki, team captain. Together, the advisor and captain searched for local sponsors and applied for a scholarship to cover the Botball tournament registration expenses. As a result, Mide Technology donated $2,000 and the NASA Robotic Alliance Project offered a $1,000 scholarship to the Medford High Robotics Team.
The Botball Educational Robotics Program engages middle and high school aged students in a team-oriented robotics competition based on national science education standards. By designing, building, programming, and documenting robots, students use science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and writing skills in a hands-on project that reinforces their learning.
By engaging students in an inquiry-based, learn-by-doing activity that appeals to their hearts as well as their minds, Botball addresses our nation’s need for a well-prepared, creative, yet disciplined workforce with leadership and teamwork experience.
The Botball season begins each year in September with the optional KIPR Video Showcase where teams are asked to prepare educational, promotional or instructional videos related to robotics projects or endeavors. In January and February, the Botball Educator Regional Workshops provide team leaders and mentors with technology training for two days and introduce the details of that year’s game. Then, after a build period of about eight to nine weeks, students bring their robots to their regional tournament.
The members of the team include three seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and one freshman: Roger Zurawicki, Binit Shrestha, Brandon Rodriguez, Emma Zec, Jeremy Prestigiovanni, Kevin Nguyen, Maxine Harney, Nicholas Kovacs, Vaibhav Patel, and Vi Vong.
– Submitted by Dr. Paul Krueger, MHS Headmaster