Robotics Team Seeks $4K for Israeli Students

From School District 113

The District 113 Robotics Team is raising funds for a robotics exchange with students in Highland Park’s sister city of Yerucham, Israel.

Recent events sponsored by Highland Park High School’s Israel Interest Group and Israeli Dance Club are moving those efforts ahead.

Highland Park’s sister city of Yerucham is located in a remote area of Israel called Negev. T

he District 113 Robotics Team, coached by HPHS science teacher Jonathan Weiland, is raising funds to donate to the Highland Park Sister City Foundation to help students in Yerucham build a robot and travel to Chicago to participate in a robotics competition.

The District 113 team and the Yerucham team are taking part in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), an international program that applies a sports model to intellectual competition.

This year’s challenge is to build and program an 18-inch by 18-inch robot that will pick up whiffle balls and place them in tubes of varying heights up to 90 centimeters tall. The robot is to move completely autonomously for 30 seconds, after which the team can control it for two minutes.

Earlier this year the Highland Park Sister Cities Foundation purchased the kit containing the components for the FTC challenge robot and shipped it to the Yerucham team.

The District 113 Robotics Team needs to raise $4,000 to fly the Yerucham robotics students and an adult coach to Chicago to participate in person at the December 14 event at Lane Tech High School.

The HPHS Israeli Interest Group and Israeli Dance Club initiated a fundraiser that brought in a total of $547 through sales at Mizrahi Grill in Highland Park, and the groups expect to make another $100 selling falafel during lunch the week of November 17.

This brings the total funds raised for the Robotics Team effort to $2500. The fundraising deadline is Nov. 24.

To support the effort, contact Sister Cities President Carol Wolfe at carolwolfe5151@gmail.com.

Robotics Team participants from HPHS have been communicating via a Facebook group and weekly Skype chats about the robots they are designing.

“It’s interesting to hear their thoughts on what we’re doing, and vice versa,” said HPHS senior Ben Rubin, who has participated in the Robotics Team all four years. The Yerucham team would be the first in Israel to participate in the FTC Challenge, he said.