Robinsville High School FIRST Robotics Team, Nemesis, won first place at the Hatboro-Horsham district competition March 2, 2013.

Nemesis competed against 36 teams from New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware with their robot, Athena.

In the qualifying matches, team members Josh Falk, Antonio Papa, Dan Gavrushenko with advisor Scott Meredith steered Athena in a disc throwing competition. The robot launched one disc per second into the highest goal helping Nemesis land on top of the leader board.

On the second day, the team continued their success and ended the qualification rounds with an undefeated 11-0-1 record. They were ranked in the first place seed and chose to ally with teams from Ambler and Pottstwon, Pa. for the final matches.

The Nemesis alliance faced off against a team from Wilmington, Del. and their alliance, called MOE, in the semifinals. The final score was Nemesis 150 and MOE 120.

Robbinsville robotics earned the Quality Award for excellent execution of the robot design and an overall outstanding robot.

Their next competition is March 15 and 16 at The College of New Jersey Student Recreation Center in Ewing. Doors open at 9 a.m. Admission is free.

Originally posted at mercerspace.com

The business donors who help make Robbinsville High School’s FIRST Robotics program possible came to Team 2590’s recent networking event where they drove the 2012 basketball-shooting robot and saw the almost-finished 2013 model, which will toss Frisbees and climb metal pyramids when the next competitions begin March 1.

“It’s amazing that they can do this level of work in just five or six weeks,” said Peter Mavroudakis, of Lockheed Martin, as he surveyed the activity in the high school’s expansive technology lab.

Steve Morales, of Siemens Industry, said what he found equally impressive was the program’s comprehensiveness. The 66 members of Team 2590 Nemesis work in sub-teams devoted to all aspects of a successful robotics program, including the creation of a business plan, finance, fundraising, marketing and running a website – not just designing, programming and assembling a robot.

“It’s impressive,” Morales said. “There’s so much more that goes into this besides the building of robots.”

The Feb. 6 Sponsor Networking Event at the high school drew about a dozen representatives from a range of global and local companies in the fields of technology, automation, software development, custom-machinery manufacturing, finance, pharmaceuticals, and the aerospace industry.

Students, dressed in black business attire, gave a polished presentation that highlighted the benefits of corporate sponsorship as well as Team 2590’s achievements in last year’s FIRST Robotics “Rebound Rumble” competitions. RHS advanced all the way to the semifinals at the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis where it finished among the top 4 percent of the more than 400 teams there.

The 2012 season also included district entrepreneurship awards for the finance and marketing team, the prestigious chairman’s award for overall excellence, the regional best website award at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship, and a regional entrepreneurship award at the Festival de Robotique in Montreal.

Donations from corporate and community sponsors are key to the team’s success because the grants pay for the equipment, competition fees and team travel expenses, said RHS technology teacher Joy Wolfe, the advisor to Team 2590. Last year the team’s operating expenses totaled $60,000 because the team advanced all the way to the world championship, Wolfe said.

After the students’ presentation, the veteran of last year’s competitions, a 4-foot, 120-pound basketball-shooting robot dubbed “Prince,” was whirring about and sinking baskets on an oversized wooden backboard affixed with four hoops of varying heights. But the main attraction was the unfinished machine on a lab table that will soon be competing in FIRST Robotics’ new 2013 challenge, a game called “Ultimate Ascent.”

FIRST challenged high school students on Jan. 5 to build robots that can shoot Frisbees through targets of varying heights and then climb a metal pyramid. The robots will earn points based on how many targets of varying degrees of difficulty they make and how high they can climb on the pyramid before time runs out. The students were given six weeks to design and build their robots.

“This year’s game is nothing like we have ever seen before, pretty much the hardest challenge that FIRST has ever issued,” said Team 2590 CEO Josh Falk. “It’s going to be interesting to see how different teams tackle the challenge.”

Uddhav Joglekar, an executive on the build team, said the team’s strategy for amassing points is not to waste too much time on the pyramid.

“As a team, we decided that climbing the pyramid to the top row is not what we want to do,” Uddhav said “So we have a robot that is designed to right now shoot our Frisbees and get that quick bottom low hang at the end of the match.”

Build Team Executive Julia Borowski said a Robbinsville-based custom machinery manufacturer, Gaum Inc., has been instrumental in providing a lot of the parts for the 2013 robot.

“This year, our students who have taken Project Lead the Way (pre-engineering) classes, where they learned to use CAD (mechanical engineering) software to design many of the parts, and we were able to send that to our sponsor Gaum to manufacture these parts,” Julia said. “They fit excellently on our robot.”

The Robbinsville robot will roll out for the first district-level competition of the 2013 season on March 2-3 at Hatboro-Horsham Regional High School in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

- See more at: http://robbinsvillesun.com/2013/02/14/investing-in-students-2/#sthash.P9oG7pnB.dpuf

As gratitude for all the support our sponsors have given us, Nemesis grabbed their black dresses and red ties last night when the team hosted our sponsorship networking event. Our sponsors were invited to the high school to attend a brief presentation, led by CEO Josh Falk and CFO Baljot Ranu, about our team's recent success, a tour of the technology lab, and a demonstration of last year's robot, Prince.  Everyone enjoyed seeing our sponsors using their body language to control the robot via the Kinect.  Jenna Mollica and Dan Gavrushenko described the new challenge Ultimate Ascent and our strategies for the 2013 robot, Athena.

Additionally, we presented each sponsors with a customized plaque, designed by Michael Filipek, thanking them for everything they've done. Finally, we treated our guests to some humble hors d'oeurves--from chicken fingers to mini pasties (yum)--ordered and donated by our parent volunteers. Once all the sponsors left, heels were taken off in celebration of a successful evening. Needless to say, by the end of the night, the team was so hungry, even the celery sticks were completely devoured.

But no special Nemesis event is completely over until we take a couple hundred photos--here are just a few of the exec board, donned in such dapper businesswear. 

On January 5th, the sun had barely risen when members of Team 2590 woke up bright and early just hours before the much-awaited disclosure of the 2013 season game challenge. Along on our kickoff adventures were our fresh rookies—still unaware of this wild-but-in-a-good-way lifestyle that is the FIRST Robotics Build Season. Shortly after the whole team arrived at the local Montgomery High School Kickoff at around 0800 hours, members dispersed into the available workshops. Topics such as pneumatics, LabVIEW, and the Chairman’s Award were discussed in each of these seminars.

Fast forward to a couple hours and a T-shirt cannon later, one could hear the sound of every robotics kid in the auditorium having heart palpitations once Dean Kamen’s lovely face appeared on the large screen—always a popular time to start hyperventilating.

“Good luck and we’ll see you at this year’s competition!” the video concluded, leaving its audience quite stunned. Blobs of people charged to the game pieces as soon as they were revealed. Armed with a video camera, Karla and Anisha recorded a few people’s thoughts concerning this rather…perplexing challenge.

“So…we have to build a robot…that throws Frisbees…and climbs a pyramid,” many expressed skeptically. “I wish the FIRST rookies much luck this season.”

“No problem. We’ll have this done by what, Week Three?” Mr. Young assured confidently. This statement was accompanied with Samantha’s nervous laughter.

“Wait, are you recording this?”

And so, here ended the tale of this fateful day when Ultimate Ascent was at long last exposed. Though this wondrous account of events is coming to a close, this is merely a brief prologue in this team’s story. Another epic saga of optimistically fantastic journeys awaits 2590. Who knows, maybe in a few months, the website shall headline, “Nemesis Ascends To Ultimate Victory.”

THE MESSENGER-PRESS:

ROBBINSVILLE — Their task is to design and build a robot that can climb a metal tower and toss Frisbees through targets faster and more accurately than thousands of other robots. And they have six weeks to do it.

Students from Robbinsville, Allentown, Hamilton, Hightstown and other communities gathered at Montgomery High School on Jan. 5 for the kickoff of the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition season and watch the NASA-TV webcast revealing this year’s challenge. All over the world 51,000 students were assembled in similar gatherings to watch the live announcement broadcast from Southern New Hampshire University.

Every year, FIRST (an acronym that means For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) reveals a new challenge that gives students the opportunity to test their robotics and engineering know-how in arena-style competitions at regional — and if they’re successful — national and international events.

This year’s challenge is called Ultimate Ascent and requires robots to throw Frisbees through several targets to earn points, then climb metal towers at the center of the playing field. High schools will form three-team alliances during the competitions, assigning robots to specific tasks such as tossing, climbing, and retrieving Frisbees on the playing field.

The RHS FIRST Robotics Team 2590 and other area high schools were able to take advantage of workshops on topics such as pneumatics, the LabVIEW software design system, and the judging criteria for the Chairman’s Award, the competition’s most prestigious honor, while they waited for the official broadcast to begin.

The atmosphere was reminiscent of Christmas morning jitters, as students exchanged curious glances and strained to peek under the curtain hanging 2 inches off the ground. As the minutes passed the students’ guesses about what was to come were becoming wilder.

”I bet it’s a pyramid!” called out Julia Borowski, a member of the RHS Robotics Build Team.

Finally, around 11:30 a.m., everyone was called to attention. The auditorium waited in nervous anticipation as the new game was announced and an animation explaining the rules was played.

”Good luck and we’ll see you at this year’s competition!” the video concluded, leaving its audience in stunned silence.

And it was for a good reason. The robots must not only be able to toss Frisbees into small goals of varying heights, they must also be able to climb pyramid-shaped metal towers located in the center of the 27x54-foot arena.

Under the rules of Ultimate Ascent, robots will be able to earn 1 to 5 points, depending on the difficulty of the target, but the most points are awarded to the robots that can climb the pyramids. During the last 20 seconds, robots can earn 10 to 30 points, depending on how high they can climb before time runs out.

Ultimate Ascent will be played in randomly selected 3 vs. 3 alliances in rounds that are two minutes and 15 seconds long. During the first 15 seconds of the match, called the Autonomous Period, the robot will follow pre-programmed instructions to score as many goals as possible for double points. Then the student drivers step in for the Teleoperated Period, and the disks really start to fly.

Since the various school alliances are randomly selected each round, cooperation and gracious professionalism are expected.

”FIRST isn’t about competing, it’s about cooperating and recognizing that if you have the right tools, you’ll be able to make this world a better place for yourself and for the country,” said Dean Kamen, the president of DEKA Research and Development and FIRST founder.

Despite their initial incredulity, after a day of reading the manual and brainstorming ideas RHS Nemesis Team 2590 members returned to the Robbinsville High School Technology Lab with high hopes for the design and build season. The next few weeks will be filled with lots of hard work, but when the robot is finally complete, all of those long hours will be worthwhile.

Game on!

The Robbinsville FIRST Robotics team, Nemesis, and the Sharon School collected an impressive 1,749 food items for the Robbinsville Food Pantry. Four minivans and one car load of food was collected was dropped off at the Senior Center. The winner, Mrs. Martin's 1st grade class, donated 342 food items to win a pizza party at Mannino's Three on December 5, along with a custom made plaque designed and engraved by Michael Filipek during his Digital Fabrication class. The high school students and parents picked up the donations, sorted, tallied and stocked the Robbinsville Food Pantry shelves. The food drive project was lead by Samantha Young, Stephanie Kovacs, Erica Falk, Uddhav Joglekar and Kiera Wolfe. 

Also, the Robbinsville Extended Day (R.E.D.) program just completed a holiday food drive at Sharon School, where the children amassed nearly 500 cans for the Lifetree Community Church Food Bank. Pantries throughout the state have been depleted by Hurricane Sandy and Thanksgiving, so all donations are meaningful at this time so please help if you can.

THE ROBBINSVILLE ADVANCE

On Saturday, December 8th and Sunday, December 9th, Robbinsville High School’s FIRST Robotics Team 2590 hosted their annual Robotics Discovery Day. Over 80 kids between second and fifth grade came to the high school Technology Lab to learn about engineering and design from team members and mentors.

“Discovery Day allows these kids to imagine what they want and then hold it in their hands. No instruction, no restrictions, we allow them to craft their ideas into reality with help from experienced members. A child can visualize their dream car, and then drive it down the hallway in less than an hour. We’re opening their minds to the world of engineering,” says Mrs. Joy Wolfe, robotics team advisor and high school technology teacher.

Discovery Day is the team’s largest fundraise, financing out of state competitions and many tools and parts the team needs to compete. This session celebrates the 4th year of the program, with a new and exciting challenge each year. In the past, students created robots that could swim underwater, fight each other in a sumo ring, follow a line using light sensors, and more. This year, less experienced or younger students created “drag racer” cars they could control with a remote and race for the best time.

The older students made catapults using LEGO Mindstorms building kits, competing to see who could launch a LEGO piece the farthest. Antonio’s group met the most success, launching their LEGO piece over 4 feet! Not to be outdone, Uddhav’s group worked hard to build their own powerful catapult. When it came time to launch, the mighty catapult launched a LEGO piece… 6 inches. Though not all the launches were met with the expected success, the kids had a great time building their very own creations.

Leader Boards were posted in the front of the classroom, updating rankings and allowing teams to compare times. Each group of 2 or 3 kids also drove the team’s latest competition robot, “Prince”, capable of picking up foam basketballs and shooting them into baskets.

Nemesis is back for its sixth year, busily preparing for the upcoming 2013 build season. We sent fourteen members off to college this past fall and successfully recruited a plethora of fresh, new faces throughout September and October.

Due to Hurricane Sandy, our schedule has been rather hectic, trying to get prepared before winter hits. Some of us are writing "Thank You" letters to send to our very gracious sponsors—it’s always important to remember who helped us get to where we are today. Also, the Marketing Team will be helping the Scout Team this Saturday, gathering information as Nemesis competes in the XI Brunswick Eruption. In addition, we are collaborating with Sharon Elementary School to collect cans for Team 2590’s annual food drive. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up—in addition to the unfortunate weather issues just a few weeks ago—many families will be in need of some holiday grub. Finally, Discovery Day, our robotics camp for second through fifth graders, is also just around the corner.

Team Nemesis “graciously accepted” a generous grant from world-renowned corporation, Siemens USA, located in Princeton. Mr. Morales—the neighbor of team member, Ralph—sent a request to help support Nemesis.

 Siemens Corporate Technology contributes more than $7 million annually to aid educational ventures in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields on a national scale. Their latest program, The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, promotes to create ideas to diminish environmental issues with the help of students from grades K-12. As a technology-based company, Siemens encourages local robotics programs to educate students in STEM Research. Their mission is to “respond to the most challenging questions of our time in the Industry, Energy and Healthcare sectors.” They pioneer in energy efficiency, industrial productivity, affordable healthcare, and intelligent infrastructure solutions—attaining high performance and excellent results.

 This wonderful sponsorship grant will assist with costs for materials for the robot as well as competitions we plan to attend—such as the Montreal Regional and the Mid-Atlantic Regionals. We appreciate this opportunity to achieve greater things with the help of Siemens.

 For more information about Siemens Corporation, please visit http://usa.siemens.com

Indiana. The 19th state admitted to the union and home to the Indiana Robotics Invitational, known to the rest of us as IRI. The Nemesis robotics team traveled all the way from their cozy homes in New Jersey on a 12 hour car ride in mid summer to Indianapolis where this competition was being held. After arriving at 6:30-ish on  Thursday evening, the first thing to do was unpack. The robot and all of the supplies needed to leave the tightly packed U-haul and enter the pit. Everything needed to be set for the competition that started early the next morning. But the robot wasn't completely ready yet. Eric was coding on the way up to the competition and this code needed to be tested. That was enough for day one.  For some, the night ended with a dip in the pool. For others, it was pizza, but everyone was excited for the competition the next day.

In my opinion, Day 2 in Indianapolis began a little too early. The entire team was up and out early in the morning. The team arrived for some practice rounds and not everything was running as smoothly as one would have hoped. Eric's coding was working but the autonomous mode was having issues. The autonomous mode didn't actually work until right before our first match. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the members of the team, the robot was ready for the first match of the qualifying rounds.

The first day of the competition was full of excitement. IRI was going great. It was win after win after win. Everything was running smoothly. Prince was on a roll. Of course it was apparent that Indianapolis was a little different than New Jersey. It was a good different. There was a corn shack for concessions where anyone could buy grilled corn on the husk, and believe me it was delicious. The price list listed something called "Pop" for $1.50. What is this pop these people speak of? And where can I buy myself a nice can of soda? It was an all around a good time. The drive team was working their magic on the field, those in the pit were keeping the robot in great condition, and those of us in the stands were enjoying the matches and doing a bit of scouting. During the qualifying matches Nemesis triple balanced. Our competition day ended with 5 wins and 1 loss. After the day's matches all of the teams were treated to a dinner provided by the IRI volunteers. That night, the team spent a long while discussing potential alliances because from that day's standings it looked like we might be an alliance captain.

It was Day 3 in Indianapolis and Nemesis had 3 more qualifying matches to compete in. If they kept their standings they would be alliance captains. Out of the three matches Nemesis lost one, giving us a 7-2 record by the time of alliance selection. Team 2590 ended qualifying rounds in 7th. Place.  Eric was given the alliance captain hat and picking began. 2590 teamed up with team 973 and 548 as well as team 1538 as their backup. During the break, the robot needed a bit of fixing after some damage was done in a previous match. Also, the three teams practiced triple balancing.  Elimination rounds started and the first match didn't end in favor of the Nemesis alliance. Almost  immediately one of the robots malfunctioned, resulting in  a dead robot for that round. Nemesis and their alliance lost but not by a lot. With a full alliance, a win was definitely within our reach.  We were all ready for Nemesis and their alliance partners to come back and take the next match for their own, but tragedy struck at the beginning of autonomous mode. Nemesis' shooter jammed. Without Nemesis' shooter, vital points could not be made. To add to that, a robot from the other alliance rammed 548,  sending the robot to its untimely death. We lost that match too. The alliance was no longer in the running for winning IRI.

 Alas, the members of Nemesis still had a great time on their trip to Indianapolis. Despite not winning, they still put up a great fight and came farther than they thought possible. 7th place isn't bad for a team that came to Indiana in the hopes of being a 2rd or 3th round draft choice. The last full day ended with a failed attempt to get seated at Dave and Buster's (2 hour wait: No thank you) and a nice little Chinese Buffet complete with perfect fortunes, funky Fro-Yo, and a ton of fun. Overall, Indianapolis was a great trip. It gave the seniors a last hurrah. The only thing no one really was looking forward to was the 12 hour car ride home...

As I enter the St. Louis Convention Center for the first time on Thursday morning, the magnitude of the event is overwhelming. Teams yelling “Robot! Make way” are heading to the competition field, a few teams are carrying toolboxes to the pits, and a group of students sporting Mohawks are heading to the stands. I head to the pits to meet up with my team and enter a sea of 400 FRC teams and at least as many FTC and FLL teams. The morning is spent in the pits checking all robot systems, deploying new code, and running practice matches. We have our first qualification matches that day.

The next morning every team heads into the stands of the Edward Jones Dome for opening ceremonies. The scale of the competition is enormous with four division fields and a champions’ field occupying the floor of the dome. Bright lights glare down onto the fields and walkways between fields are empty of their usual robot traffic. Dean Kamen, an inventor and the founder of FIRST, steps up onto a stage at one end of the stadium. He speaks about the future of the country, the need for a new generation of engineers and scientists who will create new wealth, and the role of FIRST in doing so. He is not an extraordinary speaker, but the gravity of his speech and the conviction in his eyes are compelling. He ends his speech and the stadium erupts into cheers, then exits to prepare for the upcoming matches.

Competition is intense; between matches the pit crew changes the battery, scouts compile match data of teams, the drive team—which I am part of—talks about strategy with other teams for the upcoming match, and the robot gets tested on the practice field. Then it is time to queue and we roll the robot cart out to the Archimedes division field. Our robot has to endure nine qualification matches and then either be in the top eight teams or be selected by one of the top eight teams to advance to division eliminations. Because the matches consist of alliances of three robots, a total of 24 will make it to eliminations.

The matches are fast-paced, only 2 minutes and 15 seconds long, and our team does well. However, during some matches the robot misses shots and afterwards we take time on the practice field to recalibrate. Meanwhile the scouting team is recording match data and will later compile a list of teams to pick or to try to be picked by. Later in the day, the judges walk by. I tell the technical judges about every aspect of the robot: the drive train, the conveyor, the turret, the camera target tracking, and the dashboard.   They are very interested in our tracking system and targeting display. At the same time, the marketing and finance teams explain to the business judges that our team is run like a high-tech startup and hand out copies of the business plan.

All day long the pits are a sea of multicolored shirts; team members walk around the pits to get a look at the perfectly machined robots of some of the elite teams, underclassmen stop at pits to collect pins that teams hand out, mascots are escorted around by a couple team members, and robot carts roll through aisles on their way to the dome.

By the end of Friday, we are all exhausted, but there is still more work to do at the hotel. The scouts, senior team members, and a couple of mentors file into my room to log the day’s scouting data into a Google Doc. It is clear who the elite teams are, and though we are not one of them we are a consistent scorer and have a chance to go far in the competition. Later, after a fun pillow fight I go to sleep; tomorrow is going to be a long day.

On Saturday morning we have our last two qualification matches. Strong performances—especially in the last match—propel our team to sixth place, not bad for a field of 100 teams. After our team realizes this we scramble to finalize the pick list. Then the announcer calls the top eight teams onto the field and I walk on to represent Nemesis. The top teams pick each other and when it comes my turn to pick our top pick is still available. I select team 1218, our friends from Pennsylvania. They had a couple tough breaks that kept them out of the top eight and they are a steal for the sixth pick. As the draft serpentines around, I talk with 1218’s representative and we decide on 2851, a team with decent autonomous, good defense, and the ability to triple balance.

The draft ends and I look at our quarterfinal opponents; one of them is last year’s world champion. Despite this we think we can win because the rest of the alliance isn’t as strong. I walk off the field and head back to the pits to help the pit crew bring the robot, batteries, and tools to the field. Once the double elimination matches start there will be no time to go back to the pits.

Eventually our match is on and I am finally behind the glass waiting to drive. The announcer introduces our team and our section of the stands erupts into cheers. “Three, two, one, GO!” The match starts and our team pulls ahead by a huge lead. The best robot on the other team is not working and we win handily. For the second match however, the robot is fixed and the other alliance wins by one point; it’s onto a third deciding match. Our team wins by a solid margin, breathes a sigh of relief, and prepares for the semifinals.

Our whole alliance knows how tough these next matches will be. We are against the second-seed alliance, which consists of two of the best robots in the world. Our whole alliance puts in our best effort, and despite triple balancing—a feat not many robots have completed—we cannot overcome the offensive power of these teams. They defeat us and go on to win the division.

Our team is satisfied with a solid performance, making it farther than we ever have before, and heads to the stands to watch the Einstein field of division champions. The matches are exciting, and when they are over confetti fills the air to celebrate the winners. Though we didn’t win, our team feels like winners. And I realize that is what FIRST is about: not winning or losing, but learning and celebrating technology and engineering.

ROBBINSVILLE — The robotics team at Robbinsville High School has scored a slam dunk this year, earning a spot at an international competition later this month with a student-built robot designed to pick up and shoot basketballs.

After taking first place in a field of nearly 40 teams at a regional competition in Montreal last month, the students will travel to St. Louis later this month for the championship round of the U.S. FIRST Robotics Competition, a bout that will draw competitors from across the globe.

“It’s a great team,” said team adviser Joy Wolfe, a technology teacher at the high school. “They design the whole the thing from scratch.”

The team, called Nemesis, also took top honors at another regional competition in Tabernacle, this one featuring schools from throughout eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, last month. It will compete again in Philadelphia later this week.

The team includes roughly 60 students who are divided into several groups each tasked with different responsibilities. From designing and building the robot to marketing, fundraising, and managing a budget of close to $60,000, the students take the lead in handling it all.

A group of mentors made up of faculty, staff, and parents help guide the team.

“We’re really proud that we gave the students the chance to run their team like a technical business, so people were able to segue their experiences here as they go on to college,” Wolfe said.

The annual competition presents students with a set of challenges their robots can tackle. For each task a robot successfully completes, the team gets a certain amount of points. This year, the team had to design a robot that can pick up and shoot basketballs.

After trapping the balls and picking them up via a conveyor belt, the robot operates much like a pitching machine as a set of wheels push the ball out of the machine and toward the basket.

In addition, the robot is also capable of tipping over a seesaw bridge with a pneumatic arm, another component of the competition.

While the robot can be operated via remote control, part of the competition involves programming the robot to function autonomously, a task team advisers said was entirely driven by the students.

Students said the team was a great way to take skills they’ve learned in the classroom and put them to use.

“I like the fact that you’re actually doing things,” said Eric Principato, a senior on the team who’s enrolled in Princeton University next year. “In schools there’s a lot of theoretical work but you don’t get to do any hands-on application of your knowledge, and FIRST Robotics is all about application.”

To see the article as it originally appeared in the Trenton Times, click here.

THE MESSENGER-PRESS

ROBBINSVLLE — It was a banner weekend for the Robbinsville High School FIRST Robotics Team 2590, Nemesis, which won the Lenape District qualifier and prestigious Chairman's Award, as well as an award for its student-managed website, FRC2590.org.

Team 2590 Nemesis, the Montreal Regional Champion, initially had a rough start at the Lenape District qualifier March 24-25 at Seneca High School in Tabernacle, where 40 teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware were competing. The 4-foot-tall robot built by the Robbinsville students wasn't hitting the basket with the same accuracy it had displayed in Montreal.

The team's Pit Crew scoured the machine, analyzing each component to see what was amiss. Then the Software Team decided to change the white LED to a green LED to simplify vision processing. Soon Nemesis was back in action and once again sinking its shots and scoring points.

Under the rules of FIRST's "Rebound Rumble" competition, robots earn points by shooting basketballs into hoops of varying heights inside an arena. Students need to form alliances with other teams to maximize their total points.

Although Nemesis' problem with its vision processing has been fixed quickly, it was too late to make the top eight teams and Nemesis dropped to the 9th seed, then moved up to No. 8 during the selection process. Fortunately, the 3rd seeded team, the Miracle Workerz, aka MOE FRC 365, had scouted the Montreal videos and asked Nemesis and Anomaly, FRC 816, to join their alliance.

With two shooters and Anomaly playing defense, the alliance won all but one round as it powered its way through the finals, winning the Lenape Regional. The alliance clinched a berth at the Mid Atlantic Regional (MAR) in Philadelphia April 12-14.

In other news, Nemesis won the Website Award thanks to the efforts its webmaster, Alena Principato. The award recognizes excellence in student-designed, built, and managed FIRST team websites.

Nemesis also won the District Chairman's Award, the most prestigious award honoring the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST, the not-for-profit founded in 1989 to inspire students in the engineering and technology fields.

In the wake of the recent victories that have put RHS on the road to St. Louis, Nemesis' Finance team has been contacting local companies to secure donations to cover the $20,000 in registration and travel expenses to the World Championship. Quick to respond were SRI International, McGraw Hill, Robbinsville resident Julie Thomas, and others who have all sent donations to the team.

Anyone wishing to help the team with its expenses, may send a check to FIRST Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis, 155 Robbinsville-Edinburg Road, Robbinsville, NJ, 08691.

As freshman on the build team, when we joined FIRST Robotics we had no idea what to expect. Little did we know how much it would change our lives and what a positive experience it would be. Being productive members of the team has helped us grow as people and as students. From robotics we learned the importance of time management, how to work well with others, and how to take pride in our accomplishments.

These are things that we will use for the rest of our lives. One exciting thing about robotics is that the problems we are given do not necessarily have a right answer. Rather, we are given a problem with an infinite number of answers and it is up to our creativity and determination to make one work for us. This requires a different type of thinking than what we are used to. As a result, the answer is more challenging to find, but it is also much more rewarding once it is found.
One of the highlights of Team 2590 is that we are all drawn together because of our love for the challenge. It is the glue that binds them like a second family. Something that really speaks to me about the family of Nemesis is that these kids are serious when they need to be and are laid back and relaxed the rest of the time. This makes the Tech Lab a very comfortable place to work in, almost like a second home. Spending so many hours together during build season was a brand new experience for us but well worth it. In Montreal, we had the opportunity to see Prince take first place at the Festival de Robotique. Together we scouted nearly 60 matches. We went out to eat, played in the pool, and even managed to get some homework done.

MONTREAL — The Robbinsville High School FIRST Robotics Team 2590, Nemesis, won first place in the Montreal Regional robotics competition last week and is now headed for the international championship in St. Louis next month.

Nemesis was ranked first after 11 qualification matches, conquering the language barrier and other robots and ultimately winning the entire competition.

Becoming the first champions of the new Montreal Regional, Nemesis made history and also achieved a personal best with its first regional win.

”We are so proud of the results of the hours, days, weeks, and months of labor the Build Team and their mentors: Scott Meredith, Peter Wolfe, Peter Borowski, Mark Banziger, Alan Schwartz, Ric Principato, and Tom Young dedicated to prepare, and create this basketball playing robot,” said RHS technology teacher and team founder Joy Wolfe on Tuesday.

”It is the finest robot we’ve built to date and a culmination of four years of experience for our seniors,” Ms. Wolfe said.

The Business Team brought home accolades from Montreal as well, winning its second consecutive entrepreneurship award in this season. Previously, the Business Team brought home the award at the Hatboro-Horsham District Qualifying event.

Nemesis hopes to qualify for the Mid Atlantic Robotics District Competition in Philadelphia from April 12-14 and is now eligible to attend the FIRST Championship Event hosted in St. Louis from April 26-28.

In preparation, the team is seeking donations to cover event registration fees and travel costs. The team needs to raise around $20,000 to adequately cover expenses for the international championship. The team would need to raise $6,000 to compete in Philadelphia.

Anyone wishing to make a donation, may send a check to:

Robbinsville FIRST Robotics Team 2590

Robbinsville High School

155 Robbinsville Edinburg Road

Robbinsville, NJ, 08691

Should there be any questions, please contact advisor Joy Wolfe at wolfe@robbinsville.k12.nj.us.  Any donations would be greatly appreciated. 

To watch a video our final winning match in Montreal, click here.