Robotics Team From Hun School Princeton Wins 1st Place In Competition

PRINCETON, NJ - The Hun School’s robotics team, the Radiators, won first place at the First Tech Challenge’s opening robotics competition of the 2022-2023 academic year, the school said.

The team was one of 19 NJ schools participating in ‘Powerplay’ - a game with the objective of having each robot pick up cones and place them on top of poles.

Suchisrit Gangopadhyay ’23, who was responsible for controlling the robot, said that Powerplay is one of the more interactive games with several opportunities to score bonus points through programming functionalities and 3D printing.

“For the first thirty seconds of Powerplay, it is completely autonomous, meaning that there is no input from drivers and the robot is working completely on its own which takes a lot of programming and coding work,” Gangopadhyay said in a statement. “Then, the next two minutes and thirty seconds is driver controlled.”

Kathy X., the teams’ 3D printing experts, designed and 3D printed multiple elements to the robot. She printed the shell of the robot which keeps all the mechanics contained, as well as beacons, which help the robot score more points.

And although Powerplay’s runtime is five minutes, the Radiators worked hard for months. The team meets each day after school for two hours to brainstorm strategy, construct components, program, and test the robot’s functions.

The students said they go to their teacher for general questions and tips, but as a rule, do not involve the adults too much. “It’s a lot of fun to learn from each other and collaborate on the same problem,” Gangopadhyay said.

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