High School Robotics Team Attends Second Competition of Year

by Talia Herbst, SSLI '25

Yesterday, the high school Robotics Team went to the Armory in New York City to participate in the second and final Robotics competition of the year. Although the outcome was not what the team was hoping for, team members worked hard building Philbert, the team's robot, in order to get him ready to compete in a challenge related to successfully picking up rings and putting them on stakes.

The students worked hard at the competition. (P. Garcia)

Co-President, senior, and PPN editor Risa Rogers shared, “The competition was good, but it was also tough. There were some really good robots that performed the task well and scored a lot of points, and some robots that did not work at all.”

In terms of how Philbert could function, Philbert ranked in the middle in terms of his functionality.

Freshman Gavi Nitka is new to the team this year. He explained that Philbert struggled getting the rings onto the stake. “Our robot couldn't hold onto the stake as well as we hoped for,” Nitka said.

Mr. Garcia, the club's advisor, felt that the “biggest challenge that we face every year is that we have a very limited amount of time per week to do everything that we’d like to do before the competition.”

The team's robot Philbert. (R. Rogers)

Senior Elisha Herbst, the other co-president of the Robotics team, noted that the team “made improvements since our last competition, but unfortunately we did not win.”

For both Herbst and Rogers, this was their last competition. It was bittersweet for them that it was their last competition as they have been in this club since ninth grade. Rogers is proud of the team and “can’t wait to see what they accomplish next year.”

Rogers shared a piece of advice with the team for future years; “You got this," Rogers said. "It does not matter if you win or lose. All that matters is that you have fun.”

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