Robotics Team Competes in Second Competition of the School Year

by Talia Herbst, SSLI '25 

Yesterday, the high school Robotics Team went to the Armory in New York City to compete in their second and final competition of the year.

There has been improvement since the previous competition in December. At the competition in December, the team only won one round. At this competition, the team won two out of four rounds. Co-President and Paw Print Now editor Risa Rogers shared, “There were more teams than the first competition, which made the atmosphere and overall competition very exciting.”

Mr. Garcia, the advisor of the club, explained that they have been preparing for this competition since the fall, and, after the December competition, the team has been “tweaking [their] design.” Garcia felt the team was “much more prepared than they were in December.”

The team worked hard to get Philbert ready for the competition. (P. Garcia)

The team’s robot, Philbert, had to go through many obstacles during the competition. He had to pick up triballs (three-sided balls) and push them into the team's goal. For extra points, Philbert had the chance to climb on the bars on the course.

Junior and Chief of Coding Jacob Cohen stated, “The biggest difference about the competition yesterday from the one in December was the fact that we knew what we were going against.”

Go Philbert! (R. Rogers)

Junior and Co-President Elisha Herbst was glad to report that “the competition went well.” However, there was one difficulty that Philbert encountered. Unfortunately, during the first round, Philbert got flipped over onto his side and was unable to continue competing. Rogers added, “We realized that this occurred because the weight was not evenly distributed, so we added more metal to the lighter side.”

Herbst stated that she is “looking forward to next year's challenge.”

Rogers concluded, “I am really proud of the team. Even though we did not win either of the competitions this year, I am hopeful that we will bring home a win for Schechter next year.”

Talia Herbst is a writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since December 2021. Talia is currently a junior at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: therbst25@schechterli.org