The Suffern Syborg robotic team recently won the Hudson Valley FIRST Tech Challenge Championship at Pace University in Pleasantville, NY. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire students in science and technology. The Syborgs took top honors at Hudson Valley for the Winning Alliance Award, an important milestone for a team only three years old.
“That alone is pretty impressive, that we’ve gotten as far as we have,” said George Mugno, a former engineer who now teaches technology and math at Suffern High School and is advisor to the the robotics team. Mugno also started the popular Mother/Daughter Engineering Workshop that takes place yearly at Suffern Middle School.
The robotic team is an eclectic group, including a mix of Suffern students from freshmen to seniors. This year, Mugno said he lucked into Zach, the team’s sophomore programmer. “He’s doing some really amazing programming,” said Mugno, who believes Zack has found his niche. “The math behind the programming is amazing,” he said.
By winning the Hudson Valley FTC, and several other regional qualifying shows, the Syborgs are heading to the big show. Next week the team travels to the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship, held April 25 through 28, at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri. The FTC event is a national magnet for mid-level competition programs for high-school age students that allows more accessible and affordable robotics kits. The event draws robotics teams from as far away as Bulgaria and Mexico City, and from across the U.S.
But first the Syborgs have to finish building a robot. After winning at the Hudson Valley FIRST competition, the team decided to scrap their proven design and go in another direction. Mugno bit his tongue and went with the bold move.
“With all the different opportunities and ways there are to score, it’s evolving into a competition of who can build a scissor to lift the baskets the highest,” said Mugno. “Points are based on how high up baskets go.”
The robot teams compete in a small arena and the competition lasts approximately two minutes. Each team must work with an alliance partner to score the most points by completing various tasks, such as moving bowling balls to different areas on the playing field and placing racquet balls in stackable crates. The Suffern team has built its robot from scratch, figuring out what materials to use and assembling the scissors and main robot frame.
The Syborg’s Hudson Valley FTC robot used omni-wheels which enabled the robot to move in infinite directions, a drive system that no other team had. Now the Syborgs have scrapped that design to go for height.
“We’ve been watching the other teams online that are going to nationals and they’re getting enormous heights,” said Mugno. “Teams are exploiting weaknesses in the game rules. But game rules change every single year. So, that’s part of the strategy in this whole thing. The big difference between this and the robot we won with is the drive system and scissor design itself. The drive system in the other robot wasn’t as strong but it was much more maneuverable.” Mugno said the Hudson Valley robot lifted up 4 and a half feet, whereas the new robot will lift nearly 14 feet.
So, hidden away in room 147, the Suffern Syborgs are tweaking and testing their new design. The many hours spent brainstorming, designing and building the robot gives students on the team a taste of how to use science, technology, engineering and math skills that can be put to use in real life situations.
Taylor, a SHS senior and Syborg team captain, said the experience has helped shape how she sees her future. “This experience has taught me how diverse and rich the engineering field is and has got me really excited to learn more about it in college,” she said. Taylor ranks 8th overall at Suffern academically. “As a senior, the scholarships that are available to members of FIRST robotics teams are really important to me. I applied to the Florida Institute of Technology where members of FIRST teams get a $10,000 scholarship. There are also similar scholarships at many other universities such as BU, Bucknell, Columbia and MIT.”
Mugno said parent and sponsor support for the team has been outstanding. “We’ve done a lot of fundraising,” he said, mentioning an important grant the team received from the Reach Foundation of Rockland. The team’s booster club has worked overtime to help raise funds for the team’s successful run and to help defray the cost of the St. Louis trip, estimated at $11,000.
“This robot is more powerful,” said Mugno, who noted that everyone on the team has found a place to contribute this year, whether writing code or managing the Syborg’s website. “Don’t know if the payoff will be there yet,” Mugno said, examining the new robot, its scissors extending up and into the ceiling above, where a ceiling panel had been removed to fit the robot’s basket. “But the kids want to go with this one.”
For information on or to make a contribution to the Suffern Syborgs robotic team, visit the team site at www.SuffernSyborgs.com.
