The Birth of Team 2234 The Birth of Team 2234 - Episcopal Academy

On Saturday, November 17, 2006, The Episcopal
Academy Robotics Team was born. One
month earlier, the group that would eventually
become the team had its first brush with
the bigger world of robots when Lower Merion’s robotics
coach Rich Kressly invited Episcopal to compete in an
event with Wissahickon High School’s robotics team. Wissahickon’s
Team 341 offered to lend Episcopal their robot
“The Wombat” for a preseason competition. Erin Rhoads
’10 and Adam Charlton ’09 were quick on their rookie
feet and held their own during the qualifying rounds.
Erin and Adam’s enthusiasm and success at the Duel
on the Delaware competition encouraged Wissahickon
coach, Al Ostrow, to invite Episcopal to compete in another
competition, Ramp Riot 2006, in November. Again,
Wissahickon lent Episcopal its robot, and Teresa Giblin ’07 and
EJ Spofford ’08 joined Erin and Adam at the competition. The
team finished 10th out of 36 teams, and won the Judges Award
for best exemplifying the spirit of the competition.
It was during the lunch break at Ramp Riot that the students,
faculty advisors, and several parents discussed formally
fielding a robotics team this year. The excitement and energy
at the competition were a factor, but it was the core principles
of the competition that compelled everyone. The FIRST
“Being the new kid on the block
isn’t easy, but this team looks like
it has been a member of FIRST for
many seasons.”
(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Robotics Competition (FRC) is about more than building
robots. The FRC was developed by inventor Dean Kamen’s
FIRST organization, which aspires to create a world “where
science and technology are celebrated… where young people
dream of becoming science and technology heroes….” (Kamen
is the inventor of the Segway.) To that end, FIRST fosters many
elements of working as a team. Students focus time on finding
sponsors to help fund their team. They seek out mentors
through partnerships with sponsors and universities and they
reach out to the community through various community service
initiatives. By the end of lunch, the decision was made: the
team would ask the administration if it could join the FRC by
the December registration deadline for the 2006-2007 season.
Upper School Head, Geoff Wagg, agreed that the team
shouldn’t wait another year. “The school was interested in creating
a robotics program and it was obvious from the group’s
experiences at the competitions that we should start a team this
year.” Wagg immediately provided the money for the team’s registration
fee. Shortly thereafter, The Edmar Abrasive Company
offered financial support as well. Maria Mascioli Charlton, Edmar’s
CFO, noted: “We believe (the FRC) is the type of activity
that promotes learning and healthy competition in the field of
science and technology, and allows students to come together
where their talents can be shared to achieve a common goal.”
The team swelled to seven students with the addition of Jackie
Bailey ’08, Christine Chen ’09, and Steven Wu ’09. Three
college mentors from Drexel University came aboard as well:
Haroon Ahmad, Doug Markgraf, and Bryant Nelson. Haroon
and Doug are former members of Wissahickon’s team and
Bryant was on a team in California. With Linda Lew, Middle
School technology coordinator, overseeing the efforts, Lower
School Merion science teacher, Edward Mathisen ’02, supervised
the build team that designed and constructed Episcopal’s
robot. Steven Rhoads, father of Erin, managed the programming
team. Rounding out the team was Matt Memmo, Upper
School technology coordinator, who created the team’s Web
site (www.ea1785.org/robotics) and Charles Buck, technical
services coordinator, who helped to supervise work sessions.
How the Competition Works
Every January, the FRC unveils a game challenge and
teams are given six weeks to construct and program
their robot for competition. Teams compete
in regional competitions to qualify for the national
championship in Atlanta, GA. This year’s game challenge was
“Rack ‘N’ Roll,” a contest in which robots place inflated rings
on the arms of an octagonal structure in the middle of a game
court. Two teams of three robots earn points for placing ringers
on the structure, and for lifting other robots off the ground
at the end of the game.
Episcopal’s team decided to build a defensive robot to push
opponents away from the game structure to prevent them from
scoring. The team also incorporated ramps to lift other robots
and earn extra points. As the design moved from paper to reality,
the team received help from Michael Picciani, father of
Michael ’09 and Elizabeth ’11, who found materials for the robot’s
frame and assisted with the robot’s construction. Team
members made a visit to Picciani’s company, North American
Machine Works, to get help welding the ramps.
For six weeks, the team worked seven days a week to finish
the robot before the end of the build season. Team members
came after athletic practice each weekday and usually stayed
until 8:00 p.m. In addition, work sessions ran every Saturday
and Sunday and during all school holidays. Thanks to Len
Haley, Episcopal’s director of plant and operations, the team
worked out of the school’s machine shop. Len and his staff graciously
allowed the team to increasingly take over much of the
work space as the weeks progressed. Len also generously supplied
the team with the necessary tools to build the robot and
stopped by to check on the team throughout the season. In
gratitude for his generosity, the robot was named “Lenny” in
his honor.
As the season progressed, Sophia Park ’10 and Nithin Reddy
’10 came to observe Lenny’s progress and assisted the build and
programming teams, while the ranks of the sponsors swelled to
four: The Edmar Abrasive Company and North American Machine
Works, as well as RADCorp (Steven Rhoads’ company)
and The Internet Capital Group, run by Buck Buckley ’78, father
of Alexa ’10. As such, the official FRC name for the team
became: Team 2234—The Edmar Abrasive Company/RAD-
Corp/ Internet Capital Group/North American Machine Works
& The Episcopal Academy.
The day before the end of build season, the team scrambled
to finish constructing Lenny and fine-tune its programming. At
the end of that 12-hour day, Lenny was packed into its crate
(which was built by Lower Merion’s team as a gift from one
former rookie team to a new rookie team) and sent via FedEx
to its first destination: the Chesapeake Regional Competition
in Annapolis, MD.
The Regional Competition
Held at the Naval Academy, the Chesapeake Regional
was a three-day competition. The first day was
devoted to uncrating the robot, having it inspected,
and competing in practice rounds. Qualifying
rounds occurred on the second day and for half of the third day.
The afternoon of the third day was for the playoffs and awards
ceremony. Throughout the three-day competition, FIRST judges
stopped by the pit area to speak with teams about safety, ask
about their robot, and inquire about the team, as they determine
which teams should win awards. EA’s team set its sights
on winning the Rookie All-Star Award, which “celebrates the
rookie team exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort,
as well as implementing the mission of FIRST to inspire
students to learn more about science and technology.”
After the first day of qualifying,
Lenny was ranked 8th out of 58
teams, which put Episcopal in good
position as one of the top eight teams
to automatically move on to the playoffs.
Unfortunately, the team lost its
last qualifying match the next day and
dropped to 17th. However, once qualifying
rounds were completed, the top
eight teams each chose two teams to
take with them to the playoffs. Wissahickon’s
team finished in the top eight
and chose Episcopal as one of its alliance
partners for the playoffs. The
alliance won its first playoff round and
moved on to the semifinals, where the great run finally ended.
The team waited eagerly during the awards ceremony after
the competition, hoping to capture the rookie award. Then
the announcement came. “The judges had a very difficult time
choosing just one Rookie All-Star,” the official announced. “Today
we recognize an outstanding new member of FIRST. Being
the new kid on the block isn’t easy, but this team looks like it
has been a member of FIRST for many seasons. They may be
new, but it’s obvious that they get it. Please join us in awarding
the Rookie All-Star Award to Team 2234!” The team collected
its award from the judges and referees and headed back to the
stands only to hear that they had also won the Highest Rookie
Seed Award. Jackie Bailey, Christine Chen, Teresa Giblin, Erin
Rhoads, Adam Charlton, EJ Spofford, and Steven Wu walked
away with two rookie awards and an invitation to the national
championship in Atlanta, GA.
The National Championship
The Georgia Dome in Atlanta became the team’s home
for three days in April. The 344 teams competing
from around the world were divided into four divisions—Archimedes,
Curie, Galileo, and Newton. The
Episcopal team was part of the Archimedes group, and Lenny
competed against 85 other robots in the division. After the
qualifying rounds, Lenny was ranked 27th out of 86 teams and
had a record of 4-3. Unfortunately, the team was not selected
by one of the top eight to continue on to the playoffs. Having
qualified for nationals in its rookie year, the team was happy
with what they accomplished throughout the season. “Looking
back, constructing Lenny and being on the team taught me
about engineering and teamwork. It was a great experience.”
said Steven Wu.
“This group of seven students has learned to work together
as a team both on and off the competition field. They are a family—they
fight, they have fun and they want what’s best for the
team. Who knew that November day at Ramp Riot that they
would bring two rookie awards back to EA and also qualify
for nationals? All of the mentors are proud of the students and
their accomplishments,” said Linda Lew. Geoff Wagg added:
“The students and faculty took this new initiative and created
a program that surpassed all of our expectations.”
With Lenny back from Atlanta, the team is now focusing
on postseason competitions, thanking its sponsors and looking
ahead to next year. It is working with the Community
Service Department to try to start a robotics
program at another school and
mentor that team as Wissahickon mentored
Episcopal. As the team works on
this initiative and looks toward next
year, it is also on the lookout for sponsors
interested in investing in the team.
“Sponsors are a vital part of our team;
they donate time and money to help
the team grow through FIRST and all
it has to offer,” states Adam Charlton.
Along with funding, the team is
seeking out engineers to help assist
the team. Alumni or sponsors with
backgrounds in engineering who are
interested in sharing their knowledge would be welcome. Graduating
team member Teresa Giblin certainly plans to be back.
“When I joined the robotics team in November, I did not realize
the profound impact that it would have on my senior year,”
she said. “It not only inspired me to pursue studies in engineering,
but it also taught me time management skills, cooperation,
and professionalism. I can only hope that next year I can come
back as a mentor to the team.” n
2 Connections spring 2007 3