That’s right, Holy Family is having its first robot competition.  The competition took place in room 132, on April 29th, during C lunch.  Mr. Assaf and his Engineering 2 class came up with this idea based on robot competitions that are taken nationwide.  To re-create a similar one, Mr. Assaf and his students set up a smaller field for students to play with the robots that they had created.  The goal was for the students to have a better understanding of electrical and mechanical engineering.

“The rules are they got to use contents of their kit, everyone got the same kit to build from,” says Mr. Assaf.  “But they built very different robots with the kits, which is very exciting.”

There were five teams, each with five or six students.  Two teams compete with one another, both starting on opposite sides of the field.  When Mr. Assaf blows the whistle, a two-minute timer starts.  Their first task is to knock down their black crate to obtain their balls, balanced by a plastic stick.  Once the crate falls, the balls will be spread around all over the field.  They will be trying to obtain the balls, and with the robots that they have made, the teams will try to either place the balls they collected in their blue crate, or try to launch their balls into their orange bucket that are placed above the field.  The blue crates count for five points, while orange buckets count for seven.  Once the timer stops, the team with the most points wins the round.

Shortly after the first round, students started to fill in the room.  Some even needed to kneel down for students in the back to see.  The further the tournament went, the more and more students came into the room.  Even teachers who had C lunch during that day joined in.

As you can tell in the photos, some robots and techniques are similar to others.  One of the teams, however, aimed at only trying to get as many balls from the floor into their blue crate.  But three of the teams aimed at getting the big points.  The audience loved to see how the teams were able to pick up the balls and throw them toward the bucket.  Unfortunately, one of the teams had an issue with their robot, so we couldn’t see them in action much.

Who is the winner you might ask?  That would be team Rex!  Congratulations on your win, team Rex!  Let’s hope that in the future, more of these tournaments turn up again, so Holy Family can form a new kind of robotic culture.