It’s that time again, when the M-E Robotics team (“Robots by the C” … get it?) ramps up for the national FIRST robotics competition. The 2019 team last year was young, suffering from an exodus of graduating seniors the year before. This year the team of nearly 25 is that much stronger, and ably lead by seniors Maria Cristoforo and Kevin Hines, who have returned for a second year as team captains.
Each year, the FIRST organization announces the common challenge that every robotics team across the country designs their machines to conquer. By definition, no one team can “win”—they must work with other team robots. As a result, the strategy is for each team to build a robot that specializes in part of the solution, then become an attractive member of a (hopefully) winning team.
This year’s FIRST game is based on the movie Star Wars and it’s called, “Infinite Recharge”, and the object is to assemble a series of power or energy pods (balls) and launch them through a target hole after completing an obstacle course designed to look like an interstellar space station.
The M-E team is currently building their design (called, “CMonster”) in Mr. Paul Penoyer’s classroom every day after school and on weekends. They’ll pack up their machine and head to a mock competition on February 15 and the first “real” competition is March 13-15 at Reading High School.