Schools
OHS Robotics Win at State Competition, Advance to World Championship
The O-Bots battled against the top 50 teams at the New York Tech Valley Regional Robotics Competition in Albany.
The Ossining High School Robotics team performed exceptionally well at the highly competitive FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) New York Tech Valley Regional Robotics Competition, held March 29-April 1, at the MVP Arena in Albany, NY.
The OHS team, known as the “O-Bots”, competed against the 50 best teams from across New York State, ranking high through the first two days of the competition. The team finished as the #6 Alliance Captain and won a bid to the World Championships in Houston.
“We were an underdog story throughout the entire competition,” said Sarah Gardner, President and Captain of the Robotics team. “Theoretically, the five Alliances ahead of us were supposed to have to better bots, but ours stood out as one of the strongest contenders.”
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Driven by team members Luke Zebelman and Joseph Robertazz, their innovative robot features a new special type of drivetrain called a swerve drive and was able to lead its team through the playoffs to the championship game.
“This is easily the most complicated, most advanced robot we’ve ever built—and the highest performing,” said Engineering Teacher Doug Albrecht. “A lot of people see it as a robotics competition, but we’re building robots of the future.”
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The O-Bots also won an Autonomous Award for their programming in C++. Led by Dr. Ken Ocheltree who volunteers with OHS Robotics, the programming team is comprised of students Gabriel Sankar, Veronica Larson, and Massimo Giambona.
Finally, senior Nicolle Palacios earned one of only two individual Dean's List Finalist awards at the FRC Tech Valley Regional and will advance to the world championship to compete against other Finalists for scholarship opportunities.
The FIRST international championship is the culmination of the youth robotics competition season and an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The event will take place April 19-22 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.
