In February 2014, Michael Corbat, the CEO of Citi, enthusiastically proclaimed to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, “We see ourselves as a technology company with a banking license”. This truth could not be any more evident than on Tuesday, October 13th, when the Citi offices in Warren, New Jersey generously opened up their doors to FIRST Robotics Team Nemesis 2590 from Robbinsville, New Jersey and four other FIRST Robotics teams from the area to showcase their robots and accomplishments to hundreds of Citi employees and executives.  

“Welcome to Citi’s FIRST Robotics event!” exclaimed Nemesis’ very popular interactive NAO robot to commence a day filled with excitement and education. A selection of individuals including former Mid-Atlantic Robotics President, Gene O’Brien, representative of the FIRST-founding Kamen family, Libby Kamen, and Nemesis’ very own Build Team Executive and senior Samantha Young spoke to an eager crowd of Citi employees, high school students, and young visitors . “I was ecstatic to see the support, interest, and overall enthusiasm for FIRST we encountered at Citi. After presenting to a crowd of people ranging from middle schoolers to technology professionals, I was approached by a Citi employee, and was humbled to hear her tell me that I was an inspiration to her daughter.” Each speaker discussed the importance of investing in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and the lifelong rewards of programs such as FIRST Robotics.  

The remainder of the day was devoted to an engaging interaction between STEM-oriented high school students and the professionals who currently fulfill the STEM mission in their daily lives. Nemesis Build Executive and senior Christian Gavalchin stated, “It was an unparalleled experience being able to both learn from and even teach Citi employees implementing the STEM mission and we’re incredibly grateful to Citi for hosting this event.”

In addition to the NAO robot, Nemesis brought their 2014 and 2015 competition robots to the Citi offices. Throughout the day, attendees were certain to stop by Nemesis’ booth and perform a touch of tai chi or dance along to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with the NAO robot. Students enjoyed sharing stories of what they learned about building robots, writing business plans, working with limited time and resources, and participating on a team. FIRST conditions its students to become productive and meaningful global citizens, a fact that was on full display at Citi.

Within the venue, Citi constructed half of the 2015 competition field for the attending teams to give demonstrations of their robots competing in the 2015 season game Recycle Rush. The robots stacked plastic totes as quickly as possible, capped their stacks with recycling containers, and carefully placed plastic pool noodles, representing litter, inside the recycling containers . An official FIRST referee even participated in the event to give spectators the complete exhilarating experience of attending a competition.  

Among the hundreds of people attending the event, none brought greater joy to the students of Nemesis than a visiting FLL (First Lego League) Team of seventh grade students. Their enthusiasm for STEM and eagerness to learn inspired each and every member of Nemesis in attendance. “They were so open to learning about what we do and incredibly eager to join a FIRST Robotics team once they reached high school,” expressed Software Executive and senior Andrey Efremchev. The team was especially honored when the younger children enthusiastically approached members of Nemesis, asking, “Can I have your autograph?”

The team thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to present the team and all their hard work. Nemesis is incredibly grateful to Citi for their continuous support and generosity.

Robbinsville High School FIRST Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis once again placed among the world's best at the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis, MO this April. After winning the Hatboro-Horsham MAR District Event, Montreal Regional, North Brunswick District Event and competing at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships, everyone anticipated a successful appearance at Worlds. The FIRST Championships is an enormous competition, with over nine hundred teams present and over forty thousand students involved. Indeed, there was an incredible concentration of talent and intelligence gathered in the Edward-Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Chief Financial Officer Meghna Kuppuraju and the Business and Marketing teams spent long hours working late in Robbinsville High School’s tech lab, refining their business plan into a world-class composition, hoping to claim the Entrepreneurship Award at Worlds for the second consecutive year. After countless revisions and meticulous preparation, the Business Plan was ready to be presented to the judges at World Champs.

This year’s challenge, Recycle Rush, requires teams to work together in alliances of three to stack recycling totes and cans and dispose of litter (represented by pool noodles). The teams could take the totes from the landfill (a pile in the center of the field) or let human players deliver them through chutes. To gain extra points, litter could be thrown onto the other team’s field and both alliances could work together to build a coopertition stack in between their fields.   

Nemesis arrived on Wednesday, April 23, in time to prepare this year’s robot, Calypso, for the first qualification rounds of competition on Friday. The Build Team had worked tirelessly to improve the robot and make themselves a force to be reckoned with among the best of the best. Fully prepared for the competition, the team was ranked highly in the qualifying rounds, playing alongside teams from all over the world. There were also many local teams present, including Team 1923 MidKnight Inventors, from Plainsboro, Team 1089 Mercury from Hightstown, and Team 5024 Raider Robotics from North Brunswick and Team 2016 The Mighty Monkey Wrenches from Ewing.

The Business and Marketing Teams worked very hard, practicing their presentation late into the night, reviewing potential questions, and laughing their heads off when they were supposed to be memorizing a presentation upon which all of Meghna’s hopes and dreams for high school rested. They won the Hopper-Newton Entrepreneurship Award, making them one of the top four business teams in the world, for the second consecutive year! The success uplifted  the Marketing and Business Teams after pouring their best efforts into the business plan, and knowing all their hard work paid off gave the entirety of Nemesis a sense of pride. Calypso and her drive team finished the qualifying rounds in sixth place. The team stayed strong in the elimination rounds, and ended their season in the Hopper division quarterfinals.

Nemesis would like to thank their sponsors for making their 2015 season so incredible, and they look forward to another great season next year: Robbinsville High School, New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists, CCL Label, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Navair, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Robbinsville Education Association, Carfaro Fencing, SRI International, Matrix New World, McGraw Hill Financial, R.A.S. Processing Equipment, Citibank, DesignTree, Gilbane, Elite Dental Care, Eagle Systems USA, Inc., Gaum International, Evans Analytical Group, Robbinsville Education Foundation, Coptis, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., NorthStar Vets, Triangle Copy, Bracco, Emtec, and Coldwell Banker. For additional information please  contact Team Advisor Joy Wolfe at wolfe@robbinsville.k12.us.

After an eight hour drive, a stop at the border, a visit to McGill University, and a confrontation with the bitter Canadian tundra, Robbinsville High School Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis excitedly entered Stade Uniprix, the venue of the Montreal Regional. Also known as Festival de Robotique, the Montreal Regional is a 3-day FIRST Robotics Competition primarily featuring teams from the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. But in 2015, a myriad of international teams including 1511 Rolling Thunder from Penfield, New York and even 5553 Robo’ Lyon from France made the long journey to Montreal for the event.

Arriving for a day of practice rounds on March 19, it quickly became clear that the Festival would prove challenging. Nevertheless, Nemesis seized the opportunity to meet with international teams and enjoy their time at the site of their first ever competition win in 2012. Team 2590 met with their old friends from Team 3990 Tech for Kids, who they shared an alliance with when they took the inaugural Montreal Regional three years ago. It had been an incredible experience, and Nemesis was excited to come back.

“I vividly remember winning Nemesis’ first ever blue banner my freshman year,”” said CEO Arnav Vast, “It’s great being able to go back to Montreal after three years and seeing how we’ve all developed as teams.”  

The Festival  kicked off the following day, and Nemesis faced fierce competition.This year’s challenge, RECYCLE RUSH, is a recycling-themed game played by two alliances of three robots each. Robots score points by stacking totes on scoring platforms, capping those stacks with recycling containers, and properly disposing of pool noodles, representing litter, into the recycling containers. Alliances also could throw “litter” onto the opponent’s side to raise their overall score. The playing field is divided into two halves by a landfill of totes and recycling containers.

Calypso, Nemesis’ 2015 robot, and the all-rookie drive team, still proud of their win at the Hatboro-Horsham District event earlier this season, were eager to prove their formidability on an international level and with a spot at the 2015 FIRST World Championship in St. Louis on the line.

Team 3360 Hyperion, from Sherbrooke, QC, started out strong with a fast, reliable design. The rookie Team 5528 Ultime used a double set of hooks to grab two recycling containers from the landfill at a time. At the close of day one, Robbinsville ranked third out of 48 teams, with Team 3360 Hyperion in first.

That night, Nemesis dined with Tech for Kids at their school, located in Montreal. Robo’ Lyon and a team from Vancouver also attended. It was a great opportunity for Nemesis to meet with other teams from around the world, and was an invaluable and rare experience.

The following day opened the second half of the competition. By the start of the playoff rounds, Nemesis was ranked in second place, just behind Hyperion. Hyperion selected Nemesis and Ultime, the rookie team, to join the first alliance for the playoffs. Dominating throughout the early playoff matches, including scoring the highest number of points of the entire competition in their first match, victory seemed within grasp for Nemesis’ alliance. They made it to the finals.

Against the third ranked alliance, Nemesis’ alliance valiantly lost in a very tight first match. Stress levels were high for both the drive team and the sea of Nemesis red supporters in the stands struggling to comprehend how important the next match would be. A win would force a final, decisive, winner takes all match. A loss would send Nemesis back to Robbinsville empty-handed.

Finally, it was time. Everyone in the arena had their eyes glued to the events on the field. Who would prevail? Stacks upon stacks were created in the both unbearably long and excruciatingly short 2 minutes and 30 seconds of the match. A last-gasp stack by Nemesis in the closing seconds of the match ultimately sealed victory for the alliance. In the final match, another very very close one that saw a flawless autonomous routine seal 20 points for Nemesis’ alliance in the first 15 driver-free seconds of the match. Those 20 points proved vital as the first alliance closed out the competition win and a trip to the World Championship with a resounding 189-166 victory.  

Reflecting on the finals, Build Team Executive and junior Parth Mandrekar enthused, “Losing that first finals match and then winning the next two opened my eyes not only to a victory, but also to what FIRST really is: a chance to display our expertise during those tense moments that define the competition”.  

Nemesis also won the Engineering Excellence Award for their highly efficient and reliable design. As a result of the team’s achievements in Montreal, Nemesis will be competing at the World Championships in St. Louis, MO, for their third consecutive year on April 8-11. Best wishes to the team in all their competitions to come!

Nemesis would like to thank their sponsors: Robbinsville High School, New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists, CCL Label, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Navair, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Robbinsville Education Association, Carfaro Fencing, SRI International, McGraw Hill Financial, R.A.S. Processing Equipment, Citibank, DesignTree, Gilbane, Elite Dental Care, Eagle Systems USA, Inc., Gaum International, Evans Analytical Group, Robbinsville Education Foundation, Coptis, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., and Triangle Copy. For additional information please  contact Team Advisor Joy Wolfe at wolfe@robbinsville.k12.us.

Nemesis strikes again!  With a brand new drive team introducing Calypso, their latest robot, Robbinsville High School Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis took home the Winner’s Banner for the third consecutive year at the Hatboro-Horsham District Event the weekend of February 28, 2015.

This year’s challenge, RECYCLE RUSH, is a recycling-themed game played by two alliances of three robots each. Robots score points by stacking totes on scoring platforms, capping those stacks with recycling containers, and properly disposing of pool noodles, representing litter into the recycling containers. Alliances also could throw “litter” on opponent’s sides to reduce their overall score.  

During qualification rounds the robot and drive team performed admirably, amassing points by stacking 6 totes at a time with recycling containers. Competing against 36 teams from New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Delaware, Nemesis finished qualifications in 5th place.

Picked by the 2nd seed alliance captain, Team 2607 - Fighting Robo-Vikings, Nemesis, along with Rookie Team 5407- Wolfpack Robotics worked seamlessly, snatching recycling containers and racking up the stacks. Wolfpack Robotics uses an extendable claw to reach across the field and grab recycling containers, preventing their opponents from gaining extra points. The Fighting Robo-Vikings impressed everyone with their quick stacking ability and placement of recycling containers. Paired with Nemesis, the trio was virtually unstoppable.

Nemesis also won the Excellence in Engineering Award, celebrating an elegant and advantageous machine feature. The team had a great time at the competition, and is looking forward to another successful competition at the “Festival de Robotique” in Montreal, Canada on March 18th. Good luck, Nemesis!

None of this would be possible without our sponsors: Robbinsville High School, New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists, CCL Label, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Navair, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Robbinsville Education Association, Carfaro Fencing, SRI International, Matrix New World, McGraw Hill Financial, R.A.S. Processing Equipment, Citibank, DesignTree, Gilbane, Elite Dental Care, Eagle Systems USA, Inc., Gaum International, Evans Analytical Group, Robbinsville Education Foundation, Coptis, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., NorthStar Vets, Triangle Copy, Bracco, Emtec, and Coldwell Banker. For additional information please  contact Team Advisor Joy Wolfe at wolfe@robbinsville.k12.us.

After winning the Archimedes Division Entrepreneurship Award at the World Championships last year, we received emails from teams asking for help in writing their business plans. We wanted a way to address these requests universally and approached the idea of creating a video series. A couple hundred takes and several corrupt files later, we are delighted to finally share “Getting Down to Business With Nemesis”, a multi-segment guide to writing a FIRST Robotics Business Plan. To those who reached out to us for help: we're sorry this is so long overdue!

Check it out here. 

With the help of Sharon Elementary School, Nemesis’ bi-annual food drive collected over 1,250 non-perishable items for the Robbinsville Food Bank. After school on Tuesday, February 10th, members of Nemesis made their way to the rear of the Robbinsville Senior Center to unload their bounty. The team spent their afternoon sorting and organizing the donations. Renee  Burns, Director of the Director of the Senior Center was so impressed with our students that Nemesis was invited back to put on a robotics demonstration for the seniors.

“It feels really rewarding to give back to the community, and it has become something that I honestly love to do. ”  Deanna Gavlick, a Robbinsville High School senior and member of Nemesis 2590 executive board commented.

 “It was unbelievable to give back to the community through a STEM based project.” said freshman Amanda Quon, a member of the web and marketing team.

 Nemesis believes it is vital to teach students the importance of giving back to the community that supports the team, and  highly encourages everyone to donate to the Robbinsville Food Pantry throughout the year. The food pantry is located at the rear of the Robbinsville Senior Center at 1117 U.S. 130, Robbinsville, NJ 08691.

For more information, contact Renee Burns via email at Renee@robbinsville-twp.org or phone at (609) 259-1567 for more information.

My time on FIRST Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis has been indescribably rewarding.  The program gave me endless opportunities to better the team and myself in various ways.  I have had the chance to work with all aspects of the team, engaging in very minor engineering tasks as well as my main role with the business half of the team.  I was named lead photographer and marketing manager, photographing all meetings and competitions, managing the team’s Flickr account, writing and editing the business plan and award essays, and organizing and running Discovery Day and Sponsor Networking Night.

For my freshman year English class at Penn State, our final project was to create a multimedia memoir using rhetoric.  Allowing us to use any medium desired, I instantly knew that recounting my FIRST experience would be the best story to tell and my photo obsession would be very useful.  I immediately began gathering photos and videos and writing a script, not wanting to miss any detail our successful 2014 season.  However, this assignment wasn’t just meant to tell a story, but rather to describe a lesson learned from an experience.  Being a part of this team has been life changing and I don’t plan on disconnecting myself from it anytime soon. 

To see the final product, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GfJOkO8LkY

Coming into the third week of build season, the finance team is hard at work. Every member of the business teams has been assigned a job in updating the business plan, writing grants, and preparing for Nemesis’ third annual Sponsor Networking Event, and things are going quite smoothly. We’re also coming to the end of editing our new web series, Getting Down to Business with Nemesis. These videos are designed to help other teams with the basics of how to write a business plan, and detail the different sections that should be included. We’re all excited for these to be uploaded very soon. 

Are you interested in supporting FIRST Robotics Team 2590? Well, you’re in luck! With the advent of our PayPal account, donating to Nemesis is easier than ever. Just visit the “Sponsors” tab of our webpage at http://www.frc2590.org/sponsors/ and click on the “Support Nemesis” button on the left.

We would like to give a special thanks to Ms. Meena Sahu and Mr. Edward Choi for being our first PayPal donors.

As our second week comes to a close, the Build Team continues to prototype unique elements to maximize our game strategy in Recycle Rush. Our build members enthusiastically welcomed back Mr. Wolfe, a lead mentor who returned after a recent surgery. In this past week, the Build Team split into different sub-teams, molding our versatile members into experts in prototyping drivetrains, indexing systems, arm mechanisms, electronics, and lifting techniques.  The CAD specialists worked diligently to keep up with our numerous physical prototypes. The sound level in the room quickly escalated as the new members experimented with our equipment, including the vertical band saw, drill press, and electric grinder -- with supervision, of course. We strive to maximize our time, using every moment to achieve our tasks, and look forward to the completion of prototyping.

73,000 students from nearly 3,000 teams held their collective breath eagerly waiting to hear what the next six weeks of their lives would look like. Each year, a new game is announced by FIRST Robotics in early January. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) reveals a new challenge that gives high school students the opportunity to test their robotics and engineering know-how in arena-style competitions at district, regional — and if they’re successful — national and international events. Restricted by time, money, supplies, and sleep, students strive to succeed under the pressure and stress that inevitably arrives over the course of the seemingly shortest six weeks of their young lives.     

On the morning of Saturday, January 3rd, students from Robbinsville High School Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis filed into the auditorium of Montgomery High School in Skillman, New Jersey to view a NASA-TV webcast announcing the 2015 FIRST Robotics Challenge. Along with teams from Hamilton, Allentown, Ewing, Hightstown, Bridgewater and elsewhere, Nemesis awaited the kickoff of the 2015 FIRST Robotics Competition season.

The air of excitement was palpable as students sat on the edge of their seats for FIRST founder, Dean Kamen’s unveiling of the new game. A hush fell over the room as students and mentors voraciously watched the game video depicting this season’s challenge: Recycle Rush.

Competing in two alliances of three robots each, robots are required to stack totes on scoring platforms in order to score points. Additional points can be acquired by placing recycling bins atop the totes and depositing pool noodles representing litter upon the recycling bins. All game pieces adhere to the recycling theme of the game as they are all reusable or recyclable.

Recycle Rush introduces interesting new changes to the FRC challenges of the past few seasons, such as a system of qualification for playoff matches based on points scored rather than win-loss records. Remarking on the new challenge, Build Team junior Christian Gavalchin remarked, “Adjusting to these changes should prove difficult, but I’m confident that we will be able to build an effective robot that will successfully fulfill all aspects of the challenge.”

Araba Aikins, a freshman on Nemesis’ Marketing Team described her experience, “Kickoff gave me a better idea of how large FIRST is. Watching a livestream that was broadcast to thousands of students all over the world made me realize that robotics is so much bigger than just Nemesis.”

Looking ahead to the next six weeks, Parth Mandrekar, a junior on the Build Team, exclaimed, “I’m definitely looking forward to the new season and developing ideas to tackle the challenge!”

Finally, a chance to stretch their engineering skills, the team takes to the Robbinsville High School Tech Lab to begin brainstorming. Ideas literally fly through the air. Prototyping happens in the hallways. Nemesis excitedly works concept after concept figuring out exactly how to build a robot to play Recycle Rush.

   Let the games begin!

Nemesis would like to thank their sponsors: Robbinsville High School, New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists, CCL Label, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Navair, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Robbinsville Education Association, Carfaro Fencing, SRI International, McGraw Hill Financial, R.A.S. Processing Equipment, Citibank, DesignTree, Gilbane, Elite Dental Care, Eagle Systems USA, Inc., Gaum International, Evans Analytical Group, Robbinsville Education Foundation, Coptis, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., and Triangle Copy. For additional information please  contact Team Advisor Joy Wolfe at wolfe@robbinsville.k12.us.

READY,SET… As preseason comes to a rapid close the freshmen of Nemesis joined the team as they attended kickoff.  We arrived at Montgomery High School with wide eyes and bushy tails. Everyone was excited to learn about what the next six weeks were going to entail. Filled with anticipation to learn what the 2015 FIRST Robotics Challenge would be, we attended various workshops  about the design process of the robots.  The gearbox workshop is where we learned the basics of a drive system, the types of drives, and where to acquire them.  Students interested in Computer Aided Design attended Inventor for the Beginners and Advanced to hone their skills. The most recently added workshop which attracted lots of students was the RoboRio workshop, where students learned about the new controller. RoboRio is an advanced controller that is more powerful, lighter and more compact than previous cRIO controllers. After the workshops, everyone eagerly awaited NASA’s Live Stream launch of the 2015 Challenge.

The 2015 Challenge is RECYCLE RUSH, a recycling-themed game played by two Alliances of three robots each. Robots score points by stacking totes on scoring platforms, capping those stacks with recycling containers, and properly disposing of pool noodles, representing litter into the recycling containers. Alliances also could throw “litter” on opponent’s sides to reduce their overall score. We cannot wait to begin the First Robotic season and eventually compete in competitions.

...GO!

Do you want to play with a robot? Nemesis teamed with Sharon Elementary School for a holiday food drive to support the Robbinsville food bank. In a friendly competition the Sharon School students donated as many food items as they could for the chance to win a visit from Nemesis team members and their new NAO robot. The NAO is a two foot tall robot that has been programed by the team to interact with the students, dancing the Macarena and doing Tai-chi, and even talking to them.  

Nemesis has been teaming up with Sharon School, for the past few years to collect non-perishables and canned foods to donate to the local Robbinsville food pantry. Nemesis is thankful to give back to the community that does so much to support them. The food drive, led by freshmen Melinda Beyer, Jared Glassband, Araba Aikins, and junior Mitaali Taskar, ran through the months of November and December.

“It’s important to help the community that helps support and promote our team. Without the community, the team would not be as successful as they are today. Even though the holidays are over, it is still important to give back to those in need.” said Araba Aikins, a freshman at Robbinsville High School and a member of Nemesis.

Mrs. Evanowski and Mrs. Goodstein’s third grade classes won this year’s visit from Nemesis. The students are very excited to see the NAO robot which will be coming soon with a visit by the team. In total the food drive collected a grand total of 1,256 nonperishables.

Nemesis strongly urges you to take some time out of your life to donate to your local food pantries throughout the year. The Robbinsville food pantry is located at the rear of the Robbinsville Senior Center at 1117 U.S. 130, Robbinsville, NJ 08691. If you have any question contact Renee Burns via e-mail at Renee@robbinsville-twp.org or phone at (609) 259-1567 for more information.    

Robbinsville High School’s Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis, was invited to the International Technology Showcase for the Society of Cosmetic Chemists by the New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists. The showcase was a two day event on the dates of December 18th and 19th.

Our purpose at the the International Technology Showcase for the Society of Cosmetic Chemists was not immediately apparent to most in attendance. Once attendants gained an understanding of who we are, they quickly asked, “But how does this relate to chemistry?” Over the two-day period at the conference, we reiterated how robots are the future of manufacturing, a key step in the sale of cosmetic products. Most importantly, we explained how the fundamental skills we learn in Nemesis are essential in any career path, even the field of cosmetic chemistry.  Each subteam on Nemesis must practice essential problem-solving skills and practice the design cycle, whether designing an advertising video or a successful robot.

Attendants were amazed that a group of high schoolers had built such a complicated robot like Bellerophon--let alone, in a short six week time frame.  Since the showcase was an international event, our NAO robot was especially popular being a major character on French television. The European attendants especially enjoyed the NAO robot’s special greeting for the showcase. the NAO robot also performed a tai chi routine and macarena dance. The appeal of the NAO robot made some consider its potential as an advertising tool in the cosmetic industry.

After long days of presenting, Nemesis did some winter sightseeing around New York City, including visits to Times Square and the iconic tree in Rockefeller Center.

The showcase provided the opportunity to share our work while also gaining an understanding of the latest cosmetic technology. Our chemistry enthusiasts obtained valuable knowledge of the future of the cosmetic field, giving them an edge when pursuing a chemistry-related career in the future.