Newton Busters FIRST FTC Team wins a league meet

Wilmette’s Newton Busters FIRST FTC robotics team wins the second league meet for the FTC Chicago South League held on Jan. 30, 2016 at the Horizon Science Academy in Chicago. Athena Zheng, 8th grader, and Gavin Fountain, 7th grader, had the highest robot alliance match for the day with a competition high of 215 points. When the robot broke a key servo, Simone Wall and Brandon Lee stepped up to swap out parts in record time. Yara Goldina and Brandon Lee swiftly programmed in changes to accommodate the servo change.

The Newton Busters has 11 student members, ranging from 7th to 10th grade. They built a robot out of aluminum and steel parts that they hand-cut themselves. Gear, motors, servos, and 3D printed parts were designed and power was wired in. Extensive Java programming ensued, leading to a 50 pound beast of a robot on mecanum wheels. Members of the Newton Busters FIRST FTC team include students from Wilmette Public School District 39 and New Trier High School - Max Malecki, Alex Yasumoto, Gavin Fountain, Athena Zheng, Aryo Patel, Samantha Fountain, Yara Goldina, Allison Liu, Jasmine Wu, Brandon Lee, Simone Wall. With 6 Girls Scouts on the team, the team is sponsored by the Girl Scouts. The team wants to inspire more girls and women to enter the STEM field; current statistics show only 25% of women are represented in STEM careers.

FIRST FTC is a robotics competition program designed for kids in the 7th to 12th grade. There is an annual theme that is announced in August. This year, the theme name is “ResQ” which is modeled after rescue situations faced by mountain explorers all over the globe. Played by two alliances of two robots each, robots score points by: “resetting” rescue beacons; delivering rescue climbers to a shelter; parking on the mountain; and parking in the rescue beacon repair zone or floor goal. Robots may also score points by retrieving debris from the playing field and placing them in mountain or floor goals, and also by hanging from a pull-up bar during the last 30-seconds of a match.

There is a Chicago league championship scheduled for February 13, 2016 at Benito Juarez Community Academy on 1450 W Cermak Rd in Chicago. The event is free to the public. 29 teams will compete for the chance to advancement into the state championship.