Peekskill High School Hosts 3rd Annual Robotics Challenge

Each year since its inception, the Peekskill High School FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Tournament has drawn hundreds of spectators as robotics teams from across the Northeast Region spend the day competing against each other in various tasks, each hoping to advance to the upcoming Regional Championship at Pace University on February 10. This year was no exception to the norm. Peekskill High School welcomed 22 teams and over 300 attendees on Saturday, January 12 as their 3rd annual event commenced.

Peekskill’s tournament is a qualification challenge, which takes place over the course of an entire day. During the opening ceremony participants and attendees were honored with the presence of several dignitaries, including Peekskill Mayor Rainey. Other guests representing Peekskill included District Superintendent Dr. David Mauricio, Peekskill City School District Board members, Peekskill PTO representatives and well-known entrepreneurs from the City of Peekskill.

The FTC tournament is designed for students in Grades 7-12 to compete head to head, using a sports model. Teams are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles

“Our tournament at PHS has become one of the most highly regarded robotics events in the area, second only to the Regional Championship held at Pace University,” said PHS Robotics teacher, Mr. Carlo Vidrini, who not only leads Peekskill’s two student teams, but was a member of the events planning committee as well. “We’ve received feedback from a number of participants and attendees who stated that our tournament was well run and better organized than any other competition they’ve ever attended. It is a great honor for all of the event committee members to be part of such highly regarded tournament, and I applaud my colleagues and our students for their perfectly synchronized team effort.”

Awards are given at the tournament in categories for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments. Additionally, the following participating teams have advanced to the Regional Competition at Pace:

Team 13585: Garage Mechanics

Team 7486: Suffern Robotics

Team 4654: Jellyfish

Team 11995: TACA (Total and Complete Amateurs)

Team 10949: Classy Chassis

Team 8490: Mamaroneck Tigers

Peekskill’s hosting team, Team 4243, the Iron Devils, automatically advance to the Regional Competition for their work in setting up and volunteering at the event.

“On behalf of the District and the Peekskill Board of Education I want to thank all of the volunteers, coaches and teams that made this event a success,” said Peekskill Superintendent Dr. David Mauricio. “It has been an honor to host the FIRST® Tech Challenge three years in a row and we look forward to welcoming everyone back again next year.”