Robotics Team's Triumph Earns Invitation to National Tournament

In just its second year of existence, the Upper School robotics team has qualified for a national competition this spring in Iowa.
 
NCS's victory Jan. 18 in the Friendship Public Charter School's VEX Robotics tournament earned a berth in the U.S. Open Robotics Championship in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on April 2-4. The team also qualified for the city-wide VEX finals next month.
 
In VEX Robotics, teams of high school-age students are paired into "alliances" for individual matches against other alliances. Points are scored when an alliance robot grabs and places colored cubes into towers ranging from 18 inches to three feet high. The alliance with the most points after two minutes wins.
 
NCS began its tournament with a setback: Its robot failed inspection for being too wide. Repairs quickly ensued, however, and were completed just in time for qualifier matches. "It was definitely the most efficient I've ever seen us work," said Sophia Hanway '21.
 
The NCS team ranked third after the qualifying round, and in Saturday's finals, it paired up with a group from Metro Warriors STEM, a community organization in D.C., to march to the title.
 
"It was not something I'd expected at all, especially after the way the day started," said Rowan Tsao '21.
 
Students who competed in the tournament alongside Hanway and Tsao were Audrey May '20, Kaia Lucas-Retherford '21, and Adeline Kong '22. Team coaches are Tommie Hata and Tegan Mortimer.
 
The VEX program calls upon a series of skills, Hata said: coding, engineering/construction, maneuvering the robot around the competition course with a remote controller, and problem-solving.
 
Each team uses a kit of parts to design its robot to fulfill the demands of the particular competition challenge.
 
For the team's first year, "it was the most basic robot we could do," Tsao recalled. "It could only back up, and it had a forklift to flip caps into the towers."
 
"It's cool to see how far we've come," Hanway agreed. "Our strategy has become much more complex."
 
At NCS, the robotics team has taken over part of the Engineering Garage in the Carriage House, devoting hours each Friday night for weeks to complete the build, learn the VEX coding platform and instruct the robot's "brain," develop competition strategy, and driving practice.
 
Every member of the team contributes to design and construction, Hanway and Tsao said. May is the coder and Tsao controls the robot during matches.
 
"Driving is really fun," Tsao admitted.
 
After years of a combined NCS-St. Albans Upper School robotics team, the squads split after the 2018-2019 season. NCS established its own team last year, and Hanway and Tsao said they are determined to help the team continue, going into physics classes to promote the team to current freshmen.
 
NCS also has a robotics team made up of Middle and Lower School students. Associated with FIRST LEGO League, that team uses LEGO Mindstorms technology and pursues different types of challenges than does the VEX program.
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    • The US Robotics Team with its championship trophy and its robot.

    • The team performs repairs after an inspection found its robot was too wide to compete.

    • NCS, at right, allied with Metro Warriors-DC to win the Friendship Public Charter School tournament.