Vernon finishes seventh at Robotics competition

VERNON — For six weeks, the Vernon Township High School’s Robotics Team, #1989 “The Vikings” have been working arduously to prepare a robot for this season’s FIRST® Robotics Competitions.
They competed in their first district competition at Westtown School in Pennsylvania on March 11 and 12th. Out of thirty-one teams representing high schools in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, Vernon placed seventh. On March 18 and 19, they went on to compete in the second district competition at Bridgewater-Raritan High School where they made it to the championship round. Despite having trouble with some of the electrical components, the team was able to place 35th out of 120 teams from three state districts.
The Vikings have high expectations of qualifying to compete in the Regional Championship at Lehigh University in April, and then to the World’s largest robotics competition: The annual FIRST Championship, which will take place in Houston, Texas.
FIRST encourages students to explore S.T.E.M. a worldwide robotics program for high school students in grades 9-12. Under strict rules and limited resources, teams are allotted six weeks to conceptualize game strategies and construct an autonomous and wirelessly guided robot to perform sophisticated tasks. By combining the excitement of sport with the challenges of science and math, it brings real-world engineering experience to students. Robots may seem like the main attraction but the competition builds teamwork, respect, and enhances skills and knowledge about technology.
This year’s challenge, “Steamworks,” coincides with a Victorian Industrial Revolution theme. The objective is to operate a simulated airship using robots assembled by each team. The resulting scores are then determined by how many tasks are completed in each match.
To be successful, the high school teams are expected to collaborate with sponsors and professional engineers. Anthony Ciaburri, Aaron Kiedes, Stella Foco and Keith McCotter, who are members of the VTHS faculty, advise and help guide the VTHS Robotics team through their many challenges. Martin Pirringer, Ed Hill, and Thomas Koehler are also team mentors who donate their time and skills after school and on the weekends. Currently, the team has the following sponsors: Picatinny Arsenal, National Defense Education Program, and Thor Labs.