Student Perseverance In Robotics Competition
Sets Stage For Future Career Challenges

MOUNT OLIVE, N.J. -- “Everyone wants to see it work.”

When more than three dozen high school teams converged at Mount Olive High School for a recent robotics competition, the most visible display of their efforts was on the gymnasium floor, with fast-paced matches, streaking robots and scoreboards showing shifting tallies.

Much less visible or evident is the amount of time, effort and perseverance required of the various teams to coalesce and collaborate, overcoming setbacks and bottlenecks that occur way before the moment arrives to transport students and robots to a competition.

Eva Pfeiffer, the captain of the Royals robotics team from Ridgefield, New Jersey, was the only veteran on the team last year. But this year’s team, she believes, is much stronger because of the obstacles it had to navigate.

“This year we actually got kicked out of our classroom because there was something wrong with the pipes,” she said. “So we built the majority of our robot in the middle of our school hallway. And there was even a time when they shut down the lights on us.”

“So we had some little headlamps and we were trying to clean out the hallway. It was like a whole crazy thing, but everyone stayed till the end. I think just the struggling, the problem solving--the brain-like gears grinding--I feel it brings everybody together. Everyone wants to see it work.”

Leading up to the competitions, student teams must design, build and program their robots to compete against other teams. They also have to develop strategies for scoring points while applying durable engineering principles. In addition, the teams will form alliances with other teams, which then go up against other alliances.

The Ridgefield Royals were among the 20 teams out of total of 37 at the Mount Olive competition that were sponsored by Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. Army installation with a primary mission of research and development.

Picatinny has been deeply immersed for decades in promoting careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. The largest organization at Picatinny, the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center, employs thousands of workers in technical fields who have served as mentors for an estimated 75,000 students over the years. STEM outreach is coordinated through the Picatinny Arsenal STEM office.

In opening remarks before the start of the Mount Olive competition, Anthony J. Sebasto, a senior executive at Picatinny Arsenal, described the importance of STEM and the related teamwork that are critical to advancing the DEVCOM Armaments Center mission.

“Our job is to bring together the best technologies using people who have STEM backgrounds, bringing those technologies together to improve the equipment for the United States military, and in many cases develop new warfighting equipment that enables our warfighters to address the ever-changing challenges they will face worldwide,” said Sebasto, Executive Director of the Enterprise and Systems Integration Center, one of three major organizations within the DEVCOM Armaments Center.

“What you’re doing is developing life-long skills that are important for the nation,” Sebasto added. “You’ve worked hard, and no matter how well your team does, and no matter how well your robot does today in this competition, because you came, you worked as a team, you tried--You leave here all as winners.”

A number of students at the robotics competition, held from March 10-12, noted that team participation helps students to become more well-rounded and to explore new challenges.

Aastha Shukla of the Pascack Pioneers in Montvale, New Jersey, said her experience with robotics has reaped valuable skills. “I grew a lot in terms of confidence and presentation speaking skills. It’s been such a great experience for me,” she said. “I actually want to pursue biomedical engineering, so a lot of the engineering concepts that I have learned in robotics I want to apply to genetics and biology.”

Students have multiple ways to support their robotics teams, said Cesar Espaillat Santiago of the Bloomfield, New Jersey, ROBOTIGERS. “Just go in,” he would advise fellow students considering robotics. “We’re a very open community always willing to teach people, even if they don’t want to do robotics specifically,” he said. “We have a lot of things open to everybody, like outreach, team spirit, analysis--just building things with your hands.”

Nationally, the leading organization for student robotics competition is FIRST, which means “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” Founded by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, FIRST hosts competitions from local to international levels.

Among the Picatinny-sponsored team winners at the Mount Olive event was the R.O.B.B.E. team from Bound Brook High School, which won the District FIRST Impact Award. Formerly the Chairman's Award, the FIRST Impact Award is the most prestigious award at FIRST, honoring the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST.

Other winners sponsored by Picatinny were:

• District Championship Dean's List Semi-Finalist: Krish Nambiar - Hillsborough High School
• District Engineering Inspiration Award: RoboRaiders - Hillsborough High School
• Team Sustainability Award: The MidKnight Inventors – Plainsboro area high schools
• Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation: The Gearheads – Somerville High School
• Innovation in Control Award: RoboWarriors - Watchung Hills Regional High School
• District Event Winner: The MidKnight Inventors – Plainsboro area high schools

by Ed Lopez, Picatinny Arsenal Public Affairs - March 24, 2023

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