By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
TINTON FALLS – Ranney School’s Robotics Team 3815M, nicknamed “Spitfire,” currently holds 12th place in the VEX Robotics Competition world skills standings after a successful showing Nov. 6 at the Rowan University VRC Event. Twenty-seven teams competed in the robotics tournament, with Team Spitfire named tournament champions. Spitfire also received the Build Award, the Design Award and were named Robot Skills Winner.
The team includes junior Rylan Foy of Spring Lake as team captain, programmer, and builder; sophomore Jiawen (Kevin) Yu, a new international student from China, as the builder/engineer and driver; and junior Kangqing (Connie) He, also an international student from China who joined Ranney as a sophomore, as the engineering notebook manager. Her notebook documents the building and designing process of the team’s robot.
According to the VEX Robotics website, teams earn points at tournaments many ways: through standard matches; in robot skills challenges where one robot and driver play alone against the clock; and in programming skills challenges where robots are programmed by the team to use sensors to run autonomously. More than 10,000 teams from 32 countries play in over 750 tournaments throughout the season. VEX Robotics is a commercially available design system teams use for building their robots.
World rankings will change over the course of the season as additional events are held and teams improve their robot’s skills. The team is “modifying their robot on a weekly basis to remain competitive,” says Program Advisor Chiara Shah, who is part of the MIT Network of Educators in Science and Technology.
The 12th place ranking is a result of hard work by the entire team. “As the driver and builder of the team, I spend about 10 hours on robotics a week, including staying after school to build or practice around the field,” said Kevin in a written statement.
Adds Rylan, “I am extremely proud of our accomplishment, and I think it is the pinnacle of our hard work and dedication. Robotics is enjoyable for me personally because it is fun to learn through trial and error while working with my team in a hands-on environment. Through Robotics, I have learned skills in engineering, design, programming, and, most importantly, teamwork.”
The skills the students learn along the way are invaluable. According to the school, Connie is happy for the opportunity meet students from around the world at the competitions who are “as passionate about robotics as I am.” The robotics program has helped her learn to be both flexible and strategic in her thinking.
Team Spitfire hopes to remain in the top 50 as the 2016-17 robotics season progresses. Doing so will automatically qualify them for the VEX World Championship. Ranney School’s robotics teams have qualified for and attended the world championships the past four years.
Ranney School’s robotics program represents a major component of the school’s STEAM curriculum. Pre-kindergartners, kindergartners, and first graders even get involved in robotics, using measurement, calculation, strategy and more to program small bee-shaped robots. The teamwork and programming skills they learn carry over to the robotics and coding programs as they enter higher grade levels.
The school has five faculty members trained in VEX Robotics systems and four classroom-labs dedicated to the program. Ranney School also regularly hosts local and state competitions.
Photos courtesy Ranney School
