"I think I'm going to be an engineer one day," said a camper as he proudly held his newly created robot, preparing to release it onto the track. 

This boy and many other enthusiastic children took part in the RHS Robotics Discovery Day, hosted by Robbinsville High School FIRST Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis. The event was held on Saturday, December 3 and aimed to teach 2nd through 5th grade boys and girls the basics of robotics while having fun. Robotics team CEO Eric Principato said, "Robotics Discovery Day allows kids to learn about robots and helps them to pursue their interest in science and technology."

“My favorite part of this camp was making my robot, Speedy. I can't wait to make an even bigger robot when I get to high school.”

Upon arrival, the campers were split into three groups. All campers created simple and fun Bristle-bots out of toothbrushes, a vibrating motor, and a battery. Returning campers worked with "LEGO MINDSTORMS," a computer program to create code for autonomous robots. The kids worked in pairs with an RHS Robotics Team member, who was their mentor. After the design and build process, they raced their robots. Kids who were participating for the third or fourth time created sumo wrestler robots that competed to push the other out of the way.

The room bustled with activity all day. Over sixty enthusiastic young engineers made their own unique robots that could do many things using sensors like following a line on the ground, racing toward a wall and turning at the last moment, and even catapulting objects across the room.

The team worked hard to spread the enthusiasm of building and programming robots, and received a lot of positive feedback. "My favorite part of this camp was making my robot, Speedy. I can't wait to make an even bigger robot when I get to high school," said one camper. 

To give the kids a taste of the high school level, everyone drove the team's competition robot, Andy. Working with the high school robotics team ignited the spark in the future generation as they applied their knowledge to create their own designs.

Robotics Discovery Day has continued to be a great fundraising event for the award-winning RHS FIRST Robotics Team, which is going to compete at multiple Mid-Atlantic events and the Montreal regional competition. The funds will be used to buy parts and materials for the robot and cover traveling expenses for the team. Please contact Mrs. Joy Wolfe, Robbinsville High School, 155 Robbinsville-Edinburg Road, Robbinsville, NJ, 08691, if you would like to make a donation.

Click here to see pictures from Robotics Discovery Day.

Robbinsville High School’s FIRST Robotics Team is a program dedicated to developing students’ problem-solving abilities through the hands-on construction of a competition robot. Although the team focuses with science and technology skills, it also strives to embody the values of Gracious Professionalism in which we channel our commitments to bettering the community.

The team celebrated the holiday season by giving back—organizing a food drive with the Sharon Elementary School. Over 600 canned and boxed non-perishable goods were collected during the holiday season. The winning class, Miss Raymond’s first-grade class, collected a total of 73 food items and received a plaque honoring their hard work. All of the food collected was donated to the local Robbinsville Food Pantry to aid families in need.

The Nemesis Robotics students created the custom designed personalized plaque in Illustrator and engraved the design in acrylic using the RHS laser engraver. The students learned how to make the plaque in their Digital Fabrication class.

FRC 2590 Nemesis team member Eric Principato was chosen from a pool of top students from New Jersey schools to participate in the Governor’s School of Engineering and Technology, a 4-week residential summer school held at Rutgers University’s Busch campus.  Applicants must be nominated by their high schools, with each school able to nominate one applicant for every 325 members of their junior class.  The Admissions committee generally receives between 300 and 400 applications.  “Of the nominees, who are the best and brightest students at their respective schools, fewer than 25% generally receive offers of admission,” according to the GSET website.  Being selected as a finalist to this competitive program is a huge honor.

The program took place from June 26th to July 22nd.  Students got a taste of college life as they moved into their dorm rooms and took engineering and technology classes, some of which were taught by professors.  In addition to basic courses like physics, students had a choice to take electives related to their personal interests.  In his class on biodiesel, Eric had the opportunity to discuss alternate forms of energy and actually create samples of biofuels.  In Polynomiography, he worked with software developed by a Rutgers professor that allowed users to create art with math.  Working with a group, Eric was able to design, build, and test an 8-foot tall, wooden trebuchet for a class on catapults.  When it came time for Robotics, Eric’s FIRST experience came in very handy—his team won the robot soccer competition, having used LEGO Mindstorms and LABview to create and program their winning robot design. 

Despite their busy academic schedule, students still found time to have fun with foosball and soccer competitions and a surprise dance party while a talent show and art show allowed them to show off their skills.  Students also signed up for “Life Skills” classes which covered a range of topics, from “How to Do Laundry” to “African Drumming.”  Field trips to Google, PSEG Nuclear, Lockheed Martin, NASTAR, Bloomberg, ProtoCAM, and the Federal Aviation Administration, among others, gave students the opportunity to tour the company’s facilities and learn about their work in engineering and technology.

Students were also divided into groups of 4 or 5 to complete a research project.  Eric described the process of his research on Autonomic Computing, explaining that, “We worked with a mentor in the Computer Science department and had to autonomically cool the temperature in a series or servers, write a paper, and give a final presentation.”  Each group presented their research to an audience of family and peers at the end of the program. 

Eric says of the overall experience, “It was a great opportunity to meet people with similar interests and to explore my passion for engineering, while also getting a taste of college and dorm life.”

It was a snowy Saturday morning as Team Nemesis congregated at Montgomery High School for the FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff. The group consisted of memorable seniors, adept juniors, hardworking sophomores, and inexperienced yet dedicated freshmen. Leading the group were our faithful mentors and teachers. Team 2590 soon learned about the new game, LOGO MOTION.

For the next six weeks the team spent hours upon hours together; Build Season had begun. Pizza became our worst enemy, sleep our distant relative, and the Robotics team our family. Members lived in the depths of the Tech Lab and on weekends were consumed entirely. The moment we walked in, we broke up into our separate sub teams: Build, Finance, Marketing, Software, and Web. 

Every club needs money to exist; Robotics is no different. A handful of devoted students, the Finance Team of Nemesis, handled all donations and expenses. From requesting grants to organizing fundraisers, the team ensured that we had money to build our robot and travel comfortably to competitions. The Finance team managed travel, food, and supply costs. They balanced the books, wrote the Business Plan, and kept our team breathing. The Shoprite Bagging, Robotics Discovery Day, and new T-shirt sales were run by them. The members of the Finance Team owned a business and were the fuel to Nemesis’s 2011 Build Season.

Marketing worked tirelessly to perfect the Chairman’s Award and to redesign the website all throughout the year.  Countless hours were spent working to create the Chairman’s Award essay, video, and presentation.  Documenting the team’s progress through a series of journals and photos became a daily task. The Web team beautified the website with a significant redesign. Now easy to navigate, informative articles and artistic photographs cover the website. The team’s efforts were successful; Nemesis won the Best Website Award at the New Jersey Regional.   In addition to recreating the website, Team 2590 also decided to update the team logo.  Marketing and Web had a successful year in 2011.

Our robot began as a combination of ideas and sketches. The Build Team branched out to experiment with every concept brainstormed. The mentors guided and taught each individual member the secrets of t-slot, pneumatics, PVC pipes, and zip-ties.  From bolts, screws, and wood, models of the different parts materialized. Nemesis mended the pieces together as the robot took shape and manifested itself in the form of metal. The compressor roared to life as the robot took its first breath and soared across the high school floor. At 11:00 PM on Tuesday, February 22, 2011, our robot was “bagged and tagged”. The team sat in anticipation until the day they would bring the robot to life again in a heated competition. 

Nemesis went on to compete in the New Jersey and Washington DC regionals, winning the Best Web Site Award in New Jersey.  The team thoroughly enjoyed the competitions and freshmen were quoted saying it was one of the greatest events of their young lives.  Making it to the elimination rounds in both competitions, the robot and drive team performed admirably. It was a late Saturday evening when Team Nemesis shut down the lab and went home, eager for next year’s build season.

The evening of Wednesday, March 23rd--after competing in the NJ Regional-- it was finally time to depart for Washington, DC to compete for our 2nd regional this season. Everyone looked forward to this day for a very long time and were ecstatic to finally arrive at L’Enfant Plaza Hotel. The team split into their rooms, following an evening of watching movies and playing card games with each other.

Thursday morning came around and the team woke up bright and early for the practice rounds—using the Metro to get to the competition held at Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The pit crew set up for the long day ahead while the scout team prepared to observe the matches. For lunch, we dined at one of the restaurants in DC’s Chinatown. The Marketing team enjoyed themselves by going sightseeing at the Museum of Natural History before joining the rest of the group at dinner in the Capital.

On Friday, the autonomous mode worked consistently and thankfully, so did the minibot. Scouting was absolute torture. There were only a handful of people who were able to assist with this task, spread out to scout over sixty teams. Needless to say, it was a bit stressful. While the scout team carefully watched each team compete, our drivers—Eric and Matt—were fortunately able to complete a logo with the tubes every round.

At last, Saturday finally arrived. After finishing off the final seeding rounds, Team Nemesis 2590 finished in 6th place out of the 63 teams. Since the top 8 of these teams had to pick two other teams for their alliance, we were able to choose Team 378, the Circuit Stompers and Team 1511, Rolling Thunder for our alliance partners.

Our alliance battled phenomenally—winning 2/3 of the quarter-final matches and proceed into the semi-finals. During the first round, a cable was knocked loose on Nemesis’ cable which made our driver station lose connection—rendering our robot motionless and we lost to our opponents. In the second round, we tied for most of the game, however we lost the minibot race in the end—concluding our part in this year’s DC Regional.

Despite the loss, Nemesis was proud to have reached the semi-finals and celebrated at dinner that night. Despite the sadness that the season was reaching its final stages, no one could argue that the team had become one family and the 2011 season would never be forgotten; we went home satisfied that Saturday evening. panoramicdcarena

After the official competition season ended for Nemesis, we started working on other events to promote the FIRST message and team bonding. Recently, we participated in a walk for Multiple Sclerosis and plan on joining similar charity events in the near future.

FIRST Team 2590 Nemesis kicked off the LOGO MOTION competition season at the New Jersey Regional on March 3-5.  After passing inspection at a weight of 119.8 pounds, we prepped the robot and tested our driving on the practice field.  We made it to the Quarter-finals and won the Website Award!

At the regional, autonomous mode worked well and we consistently placed three tubes per match.  Our main problem was the minibot, which failed to align properly, preventing it from climbing the pole.  Finally, during the last qualifying match, the robot was lined up at the pole and as everyone in the stands had hoped, the minibot finally made it up the pole.  Thanks to the success of the minibot in the last match, we were picked by the fourth alliance to compete in the Quarter-finals. 

Unfortunately, the minibot did not work in the elimination rounds.  If we had gotten it up the tower in both Quarter-final matches, we would have advanced to the semi-finals.  Overall, the team’s hard work during the build season paid off as we were able to succesfully compete with our robot and the experience we have gained from this event will allow us to improve the robot as the team gears up for the Washington D.C. Regional

A Creative Piece by Our Freshmen Team Members

Freshmen are the newest kids to join the Robotics team.  We have now survived our first season of the legendary Build.  *cue epic music – Lord of the Rings soundtrack* We spent more time in this school, in this room, than we did with our family, our homes, and even our beds.  We slept for only a few hours, ate only when we were told, and bathed not quite frequently enough.  Instead, we were here –writing our name, our legacies into the making of the 2011 robot.

It all started during the pre season.  These nights were short and simple.  We learned the ropes of Gracious Professionalism™.   We even had a competition in the pre season.  Our hearts were bold and our minds were strong.  We made new friends, fought old enemies, and experienced victory and defeat.   We helped children and showed them what we were all about.  Then the days of happiness ended and we traveled to the Mad Land of Montgomery.  The FIRST Gods spoke of an impending depression that would blanket the world.  We freshmen had no idea what they were speaking of.  A so-called menace, known as “The Build Season” was all we understood and our hearts grew weary.  The team returned to their home of Robbinsville intrigued and hungry.  Unfortunately, a few could not handle the pressure.  They fled the land and became outcasts to the team – merely peasants that would come and go on short occasions.  Their names were lost to the sands of time.

These were dark times for 2590 Nemesis. The Ancient Beast, Andy, the 2010 robot, refused to communicate with our new tools.  As we struggled to test our new code, the build team failed to sort through the massive sea of ideas. But through the darkness, hope arrived. In the third week, software had a breakthrough. The old robot awoke. With this new opportunity to test our software, our code grew. The software team strove ahead, while build struggled behind.

With only two weeks left, people were getting worried.  They buckled down to work and soon rediscovered the forgotten pneumatics.  They created the claw which was the weapon needed to fight their enemies.  The robot was coming together.  The monster was being brought to life. There were only so many days left and the final touches were needed.

The last (extended) weekend (Thank you dead presidents)– those four days were spent working.    From the crack of dawn to 11:00 at night, we worked. We worked with all of the determined dedication that we could muster. We attempted to finish in time for a pre-challenge skirmish, but this deadline passed us. Still, we worked. On the final day, without hours to spare, we achieved victory. Everything fell into place, the robot could drive with the grace of a deer, and it could autonomously accomplish its great task.  We had won.  We are the freshmen.

THE MESSENGER-PRESS

The Robbinsville Board of Education graciously accepted a Bristol-Myers Squibb $6000 grant for the FIRST Robotics Team 2590 on January 25, 2011. Bristol-Myers Squibb proudly supports programs, like FIRST Robotics, that educate young men and women in science, engineering, technology, and business, allowing them to explore their creativity while having fun. Come see the team in action at the Sun National Bank Center,Trenton,NJ on March 4 and 5 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Washington D.C. on March 25 and 26. Admission is free at both events.

This year’s competition is LOGO MOTION where six teams battle to pick up large inflatable tubes and hang them on 9 feet tall stanchions. During the last 10 seconds of the game, teams launch mini-bots to zip up a 10 feet pole for bonus points.  Pictured from left to right: Eric Principato, CEO of Team 2590, presents the check to Mr. Michael Reca, Board of Education President, and Mr. Steven Mayer, Superintendent.

Glassboro, NJ - Seven students from Robbinsville High School’s Project Lead the Way program (5 of which are members of Team Nemesis) were invited to participate in The 2010 Guidance Counselor Conference at Rowan University today. The conference was designed to provide an overview of PLTW and training for counselors in active PLTW schools. Thirty guidance counselors and technology teachers from across the state attended the conference.

The Robbinsville students led three sessions demonstrating examples of what they learned in their PLTW class, Principles of Engineering. Each session started with a presentation that provided a class overview and examples of final projects. The presentation was followed by a practical demonstration – the counselors and teachers were challenged to design a bridge out of paper that would span a gap between two tables and support the greatest amount of weight. The teachers received some tips from the students and were able to make bridges that supported over twenty pounds by using only three sheets of paper.  Guidance counselors who were looking to add Project Lead the Way courses to their schools were able to get a feel for the courses and ask questions of students who had actually taken the classes.

After completing the three sessions, the Robbinsville PLTW students were able to tour the engineering campus at Rowan and the South Jersey Technology Park.  The first stop was the Virtual Reality Applications Center where the students were treated to a demonstration of the CAVE. The CAVE, a fully immersive virtual reality system that can be used for gaming, but more importantly, it can be used for problem analysis of remote locations.  Data is sent to the system and a place, such as an aircraft carrier at sea is recreated.  This is useful because the program analyzes the data enabling an engineer to identify any problems without flying to the aircraft carrier.

The next stop on the tour was a nano-engineering lab where students from Rowan were attempting to create a new semiconductor technology.  They were using plasma to create a material called grapheme, a carbon-based material that is only a few atoms thick! 

The final stop on the tour was at the FocalCool lab.  FocalCool is developing a catheter that cools the heart to help prevent cell damage during a heart attack. They hope to extend this technology to treat strokes and traumatic brain injuries as well.

The day at Rowan University provided students with the opportunity to peer into their academic future in addition to the opportunity to help teachers and guidance counselors better understand how Project Lead the Way will enhance the future learning in their own school districts.

It felt like a second “rookie” year when our 2008 seniors graduated and we started the year with a young team of juniors fresh from their Principles of Engineering class and excited freshmen ready step up to the big league of FRC.•• After a phenomenal first year, with great expectations and the pride of the community focused on us, we fortunately experienced an influx of new members and mentors as we continued to build on the startup high tech business model.• The finance and marketing team flourished, the software team emerged, and the Build team was buoyed with mechanical and software talents.

After the 2009 Lunacy kick-off, we rushed back to the Tech Lab to unpack the Kit of Parts and brainstorm and quickly converged on the same design.• Financed by a second year NASA grant and funding by our school district with minimal extra money to spend, we prototyped in cardboard and designed a slow but steady robot with a distinctive look that gathers balls from the floor and shoots them into the trailer of an opponent.• With our international team of mentors, we oscillated between the American High School student “brute force, seat of the pants, let’s give it a try and see if it works” design philosophy versus the professional, orderly, “design it with a CAD system before you cut anything”.• It was an education for both students and mentors.•• Our UK engineering mentor took a crash course in American and we learned the professional engineering method.•• Despite the learning curve, the conveyor belt slowly emerged and Sheldon was created.• Second to that “old school versus high school” culture clash, the most difficult part was designing a conveyor belt with a roller to scoop the balls from the ground.

Sheldon was a ball spitting, tank-drive machine that skates over the slick surface to gobble moon rocks and shoot them into the other team’s trailers.• Wafting the ball with a swish and a score, our human players scored from behind the barriers or from a sitting position on the side. We competed in the New Jersey Regional and went to Atlanta, Georgia for the Championship.• For some, this was their first long distance trip with a High School team and it was late nights, floor hockey and the awe of seeing the best teams in the nation.• We were grateful to have a 22 year old college mentor, who burned the midnight oil playing video games and floor hockey into the wee hours of the morning with the Scout team. Meanwhile, the “early to bed, early to rise” Pit crew and Drive team had breakfast at 6am with Mr. Wolfe and opened the Pits.  The competition was exciting; we worked hard and played hard.

The Finance and Marketing teams continued to grow and flex their wings: balancing the books, writing the Business Plan, polishing the Chairman’s Award with out community service projects and fundraising efforts.  Professionally polished with hours of practice, the team won the 2009 Entrepreneurship Award for their efforts.  Recognized as a model start-up company, our team had a great year.

During the late spring of 2007, a group of determined rising seniors asked Mrs. Wolfe, the new Technology teacher at Robbinsville High School (RHS), to please start a FIRST Robotics Team. They either had relatives or friends on local teams and wanted to start an academic tradition at their three year young high school. Nemesis, FRC 2590 was created when the “stars” came into alignment during November 2008, Chris Gregory, the Hightstown FRC 1089 mentor, Paul Kloberg, Michael Reffler, Sara Reffler, NJ FIRST Senior Mentors, and Gene O’Brien of the NJ Society of Professional Engineers, came to RHS offering their support. 

It all fell in place when NASA awarded the team a $6,000 Rookie grant.  In December, we embarked into the unknown that filled us with terror and joy as we scrambled to earn money for robot parts and learn as much as possible, reading all available documentation and websites, picking the brain of the mentors, and attending workshops.  Team Mercury 1089 loaned us their old robot to study and use for fund raising efforts, in addition to giving workshops.  We went to the kick-off in January with high hopes and a bit of healthy fear about the build season ahead.

For the next six weeks, we spent every night and weekend in the Tech Lab at RHS bonding as a team and creating a team culture similar to a high tech start-up company.   Everyone eventually found their place.  It was serendipity that Michael Arak took one look at our box of receipts and proceeded to create detailed financial books and spreadsheets as our Chief Financial Officer and Operations Manager, keeping the team afloat.  Mark Panes, our Chief Executive Officer, with his infectious smile and positive attitude kept us on track and motivated.  Steven Rutsky and Rida Alvi came into their own as the Chief Technology Officer and Director of Research and Development.  Our mentors were amazing, everyone worked together to create the robot and the team.

Initially, the Build team didn’t know how to build a chassis; all of the pieces in the Kit of Parts were just that….pieces. We were clueless but happy to have mentors that were just as enthusiastic but inexperienced with the FIRST program.  After the first week, the Cavalry arrived as Mr. Ed Petrillo, Mr. Chris Gregory, Mr. Michael Reffler, Ms. Sara Reffler, Mr. Matt Palmere and Mr. Ed Healey walked into the Tech Lab and started working with us, offering practical advice on the mechanics and software.  Marco’s signature saying during the build season was “Do work, son” and we worked. 

There is a bond that grows from adversity.  We brainstormed, prototyped, bounced back from mistakes, and ran debriefing session, while implement the design cycle.  Working alongside professionals, the students learned about their various professions, absorbed their work methods, and honed the practical application of their skill sets.  It was a time of minimal sleep and total dedication.

The Marketing team documented the Nemesis story as they wrote the Chairman’s Award, created the team PowerPoint, and marketing materials.  We practiced giving presentations, answering questions on the fly, and learning how to interact with all types of personalities.  Dressed in business attire, we gave presentations to the Board of Education, the local Businesses, and the Robbinsville Education Foundation asking for their support.  The community responded with great enthusiasm and monetary contributions.  On a wing and a prayer, we built our simple, reliable robot and went to the 2008 New Jersey Regional Competition.

To our amazement, Blaine Zaffos and Mark Panes drove our robot through 8 undefeated seeding rounds, placing us as the third highest team.  Rob Hyams and his team of scouts identified our alliance partners: MORT, Mount Olive High School and Aberdeen High School of Aberdeen, Maryland .   We made it to the Finals!  During the awards ceremony, Nemesis FRC 2590 won the prestigious “Rookie All Star,” “Highest scoring Rookie,” and the “Finalist” awards and invited to the National Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA.   We were thrilled; it was more than we ever expected.

The Robbinsville community rallied to our cause and the donations came pouring in as the story of our success was published in the newspaper.  We went to the Nationals and met teams from all over the world.  It was a once-in-a- lifetime experience. 

Our seniors graduated and are now attending top universities and colleges with majors in Engineering, Computer Science, and Business.  They received scholarships and made lasting friendships and left a legacy of excellence.

TRENTON TIMES

TRENTON -- Local teams performed strongly at this year's New Jersey Regional FIRST Robotics Competition at Sovereign Bank Arena, with Trenton Central High School taking top tournament honors and Robbinsville High School's rookie team coming in second yesterday.

Each team's win was shared with fellow alliance members, teams they cooperated with during the tournament. Trenton Central shared its Regional Competition championship with allies North Brunswick Township High School and Palisades High School of Kintnerville, Pa. Robbinsville High shared its Regional Finalist Award with Mount Olive High School and Aberdeen High School of Aberdeen, Md.

Robbinsville High also took home the Rookie All-Star and Highest Rookie Seed awards.

"We are just very thrilled," Joy Wolfe, faculty adviser for the Robbinsville team, said. "We're still finding out what these students can do as a team, and this was very unexpected. They were so excited."

"I think we were all surprised that we did so well," Rida Alvi, Robbinsville High team leader, said.

The team did not receive its first endorsement until November, when it won a $6,000 grant from NASA, just two months before kits for the New Jersey Regional competition were sent out. According to Wolfe, the team received a great deal of guidance during the fundraising process from Hightstown High School's robotics club. Hightstown High took home the Gracious Professionalism award after it was nominated by Robbinsville High.

Wolfe said involvement in the robotics team has been a life-altering experience for some students.

"We've had a lot of interest from students who leaned to the art side because this follows the same progression as an art project. This is the first time they've considered going into engineering as a career," Wolfe said.

Karisa Williams, team captain for Trenton Central, had a similar experience.

"I wasn't sure my freshman year whether I wanted to go into art or engineering. Then a friend took me to one of these competitions and I fell in love with it. Now I'm a senior and I'm looking to be an engineer," Williams said.

This year's competition involved a game called "FIRST Overdrive," in which the robots that students designed and built raced around a course attempting to place or throw giant nylon balls over an overpass to score points.

Going into the final rounds, Trenton Central's alliance had scored a regional record 114 points, while Robbinsville High had gone undefeated during two days of competition. But it was ultimately Trenton Central's alliance that stood victorious.

"I think we were able to do well because our robot was built for racing. It was fast, and it earned points that way," said Katelyn Sapio, who worked in the electronics department of the Trenton Central team.

While Trenton Central's alliance beat all other competitors at "FIRST Overdrive," Pascack Valley Regional High School was awarded the Regional Chairman's Award, the competition's most prestigious prize, having been judged as the team with the greatest commitment to spreading passion about science and technology to other schools and communities. As a result, it received a reserved spot in the national finals to be held in Atlanta.