Riverhead Robotics Team Headed To World Competition

RIVERHEAD, NY — The Riverhead High School robotics team is about to compete on the international canvas.

The team, in its second year and coached by Riverhead High School technology teacher Luke Ferland, entered two robots into the competition.

One, Ferland said, focused on plowing scoring objects, stars and bags, under the fence and knocking stars off the top of the fence onto the other side. The other robot, which had arms, collects scoring objects, lifts them up, and dumps them on the other side over the top of the fence. This robot also has the ability to score points autonomously, without the need for the driver controlling the robot, he said.

According to a release from the district, the students developed and wrote code that was programmed into the robot's microcomputer. When this code was initialized, the robot would lower its arms, move forward, turn, drive forward, open its arms, move forward, close its arms to collect the bean bag, turn, move to the fence, lift its arms over the fence, and, lastly, dispense the bean bag over the fence to score points without any driver input, the district said.

"It takes an understanding of the math used to program the robot and a knowledge of physics to make this happen," Ferland said.

According to their website, VEX Robotics World Championship, now entering its 10th year, will bring together the top 1,400 student-led robotics teams from around the world to Louisville, Kentucky, on April 19 to 25.

The competition will culminate with finals, awards, and a team party at Kentucky Kingdom on Saturday, April 22.

“Because this was my first year in the robotics class and only our second competition this year, I am very proud of our team," said Eric Behr, sophomore. "We thought we would go home early, but because of our commitment and teamwork we were able to push through and succeed."

Added sophomore Kyler Driscoll, "Being one of the newest and most inexperienced teams, it was great to see our hard work pay off by being Tournament Champions of the Southern New York States Tournament."

"Given that we hadn’t even anticipated going to states, the fact that we qualified for worlds is a very pleasant surprise, and a responsibility we are all taking very seriously," said tenth grader Quint Nigro.

And, said, Brandon Escobar, tenth grader, “Riverhead is part of the world's code, and we’ll metal our way to the top!”

The robotics class, Ferland said, is a year-long course that focuses heavily on mechatronics and computer programming and coding.

"Students learn how to solve problems by implementing various engineering disciplines and principles. This class differs from a typical academic class in the fact that a large portion of the class is hands on and focuses on engineering, coding, and physics," he said.

"This is a class in a league of its own because it takes core STEM subject areas and makes them incredibly real world and hands on. Another huge component to this class is communication. Team members need to possess technical information and the knowledge to develop strategies, and also the ability to communicate with other team members. I am very proud of all my students and am incredibly fortunate to have the level of school support that I have been given," Ferland said.

Photo courtesy of Riverhead Central School District.