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Health & Fitness

HHS Robotics Team Participates in Regional Competition

The Huntington High School robotics team attended the Long Island Regional FIRST robotics competition at Half Hollow Hills West last Saturday. The event drew 25 area high schools from as far away as Sag Harbor.

The Huntington Devilroids were led by the school’s robotics club president Joe Saginaw and team members Jacob Strieb, Brian McConnell, Olivia Palmer, Julian Carrollo, Garrett Filippini, Victor Tellez and Thomas Kouttron. Science teacher Judyann Pazienza, who serves as the club’s faculty advisor, accompanied the team.

The Huntington and Northport High School squads participated in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competition as pre-rookie teams. They were joined by veteran squads from Baldwin, Bay Shore, Central Islip, Center Moriches, Cold Spring Harbor, Comsewogue, Connetquot, Great Neck South, Hauppauge, Half Hollow Hills, Hicksville, Island Trees, Lindenhurst, Long Island City, Malverne, Miller Place, North Shore, Patchogue-Medford, Plainview-Old Bethpage, Port Washington, Sachem North, Sag Harbor and Seaford.

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Sponsored by School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, the day-long Half Hollow Hills Invitational was “designed to showcase the benefits of robotics programs on students, schools and their communities,” according to event organizers. “Students not only immerse themselves in the fields of physics and engineering, but also learn about problem solving, cooperation and teamwork.”

“At this event, 23 schools competed using last year’s FIRST robotics competition game and robots,” Ms. Pazienza explained. “The Huntington students were given lessons on driving the robots, tips on fundraising, insight on how to design and program the robots and quite a bit of positive encouragement.”

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Participating teams used the robots they built for last year’s LI Regional FIRST robotics competition, which was held at Hofstra University in April. Students programed their robots, some weighing as much as 120 pounds and competed on a 27-by-54-foot playing field with pyramids, attempting to earn points by shooting as many flying discs into their goals as possible during the two-minute, 15-second match. Matches concluded with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field. Pre-rookie teams borrowed robots from other teams.

After scouting the “pit” areas of the competing teams, Messrs. Tellez and McConnell were brimming with good ideas on everything from building a robot to redesigning the Huntington robotics club’s logo. 

Ms. Pazienza even had an opportunity to drive the Hauppauge team’s robot, with that squad’s members offering her helpful suggestions. “It is harder than it looks,” the teacher said about the experience.

The highlight of the day came when the Devildroids were officially “adopted” by Half Hollow Hills. The ThunderColts, who went to the nationals in their rookie year, requested to be Huntington’s official mentor team. They will help guide the Devildroids through the six-week build cycle, help Huntington fundraise “and be at our side during the competition,” Ms. Pazienza said.  

Half Hollow Hills’ advisor Julian Aptowitz has invited Huntington students to come to the Dix Hills school on Friday afternoons in December to learn how to drive robots and discuss design approaches. Several other teams at last week’s competition have also offered the Devildroids support including Matt Chartan of Cold Spring Harbor (who has already hosted a group of Huntington students),  Steven Kunz of Patchogue-Medford and Rich Shapp of Plainview-Old Bethpage. 

The 50-plus member strong Devildroid team is excitedly anticipating the January 4 kick-off of the 2014 FIRST competition and the March 27-29 tournament at Hofstra University.

School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) was founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses that would provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce. Over 100 partnerships have been formed.

In 1999, SBPLI brought the FIRST robotics program to Long Island, where eight high school teams participated. Since then it has grown to 50 teams, with over 2,000 students participating in FIRST robotics and FIRST LEGO league programs on Long Island each year.

 

 

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