Tech Center Robotics Team Advances to Regional Championship

Robots may not be taking over the world yet, but they held a pretty good block party at the FIRST Tech Robotics Challenge at Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers last weekend. The Tech Center’s Roboneers team won three awards during the Block Party competition, where they used robots to manipulate blocks against other teams in a 12-foot-square playing field. Next stop will be the Hudson Valley regional competition to be held at Pace University in Pleasantville on February 16.

New Visions Engineering and Telecommunications students from The Tech Center at Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES received awards in the Judges, Think, and Inspire categories. Tech teachers Gerry Markel and Carlo Vidrini spent hours of tireless training to prepare for the competition.

“Mr. Markel and I are extremely proud of the commitment our students made to the FTC robotics competition,” said Tech engineering teacher Carlo Vidrini. “They spent endless hours, during and after school, building and perfecting their robot. Their dedication to this project is evident.”

During the autonomous part of the competition, teams programmed their robots to pick up blocks and drop them in a specified area on the field. In the second part of the competition, students used remote controls to pick up and drop blocks via their robots.

The FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — Tech Challenge is designed for students in grades 7 to 12 to design, build, and program their robots to compete against other teams.