Robotics Team Earns Third Place in the World

There were 400 of the top robotics teams in the world competing together to find the best—and after winning its division, Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s First Team 303 finished the recent championships in St. Louis as third in the world.

“We thought it was amazing, and it was the first time we had traveled with the team,” said senior Matt Gorka, who was one of the co-captains of the team for 2012-2013. “These were 400 of the best teams in the world.”

The world championships were held in late April in St. Louis, and capped off a successful season for the team.

According to senior Keerthana Hirudayakanth, the other 2012-2013 co-captain of the team, there are four divisions that head to the world championships. Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s team was in the Newton division.

“Whoever wins the divisions goes on to Einstein,” she said. “That’s the field of champions. The overall winner is the world champion.”

The team had previously been to the championships in 2011, but they lost in the quarterfinals.

“The first time we went, we didn’t know what to expect,” Hirudayakanth said. “But we built upon what we learned.”

The championships were comprised of three days of competition, and 35 BRHS students headed out to compete.

In the end, First Team 303 won its first match among the final four, and lost the next two to take home third place in the world.

“This is the farthest our team has gone,” Gorka said.

The robotics season entails six weeks of build time, according to sophomore Tyler Stark, who will be one of the co-captains of the team for the 2013-2014 school year. The actual competition is released at the beginning of that six-week period, and they build the robots to prepare for the specific games to be played.

“We are building a robot toward a championship,” he said.

This year’s competition, Stark said, was a three-on-three game, with three robots from each team. The goal, he said, was to have the robot shoot discs into a goal.

“And on each side was a 7.5-foot pyramid, and the robots could climb it for points,” he said.

Junior Ryan King, who will serve as the other co-captain for the 2013-2014 year, said all the pieces of the robot were made by the students.

“It was made by students in our workshop,” he said. “Everyone uses the same motor and wheels.”

Hirudayakanth said they made three different robots to do three different jobs in the competition.

But the team never expected to get as far as they did.

“It was incredibly surprising,” King said. “Many thought we wouldn’t make it that far, and it was an amazing experience to win the division.”

This year’s team changed from past years, moving from Panther Robotics to First Team.

“It was mentor-driven before, and some felt they were excluded,” Gorka said. “It should be the mentors helping and being there to guide.”

The change made that happen for the team.

Gorka said it took a lot of preparation to get to where they were, starting with a week of planning the robots as soon as they knew about the competition games.

“The team was broken into subgroups, with mechanics and electronics,” he said. “Around week five, we all came together.”

Among the four competitions the team took part in prior to the world championships was the first ever show held at Bridgewater-Raritan High School this year.

“Having the competition here was the most stressful,” Stark said. “It was the biggest event of all the mid-Atlantic competitions, and we raised $10,000 from concessions.”

There were 43 teams in attendance, Stark said.

“That was several hundred more people than at others,” King said. “Next years should be held on the March 29 weekend.”

King said that, each year, the team works hard to get new members.

“People have a preconceived notion about the team,” Hirudayakanth said. “Some said they would have joined if they knew what the team did.”

King said each year the team talks to biology classes about robotics, and they have an ad on BR-TV, as well as a table at the club fair.

“But we are hoping recruitment does itself next year,” he said, “now that we are associated with the third in the world.”

“Nobody really does robotics from a young age,” he added. “You have to do this to see what it’s like.”

Stark said beginning recruitment early is what is most important.

King said they usually have 10 to 15 active members.

“But this is not a geeky guy, techie thing,” said Paul Kloberg, teacher advisor for the robotics team.

Gorka said being part of the robotics team helped him decide to go into engineering, and he is planning to study chemical engineering at Penn State next year.

Hirudayakanth said she will be attending Rutgers, and hopes to be able to serve as a mentor sometimes for next year’s team.

The kickoff next year will be on Jan. 4, with six weeks to build the robots and six weeks of competition, culminating in the 2014 world championships.

“We know how important strategy is,” King said. “None of the three teams on our alliance were super teams, but we had a good end-game strategy.”

Each year, there are three district competitions, then regional championships that culminate in worlds. Teams earn points at each competition, and those points earned are tripled in the championships.

Gorka said they worked through all these competitions, and tried to play safe this year as opposed to past years when they found pieces breaking on the robot at each competition.

“A lot depends on how well the robot does,” he said. “We played the game safe and the robots didn’t get smashed. Last year we kept having to fix things.”

The team is very proud of their accomplishments this year, and are looking forward to what’s to come.

“It has been one of the greatest experiences,” Gorka said. “No class can teach this stuff.

“I hope that what we have done this year keeps going,” Hirudayakanth said. “Robotics has always been a well-kept secret.”