By Patrick Faulkner
Bouncing back from a difficult season, the LREI Robotics Team made it to the ‘FIRST Tech Challenge’ NYC Regional Championship on February 26. Although unable to advance from the competition, this season’s impressive run has given the team a newfound sense of hope.
After advancing from the Dalton Qualifiers by winning the “Innovate Award” on February 20, the team was excited to proceed, but had a sense of uncertainty. Team member Bennett Mark said after the Dalton Qualifiers, “I’ve never been to the next competition [Regional Championship]. I don’t know what kind of points these other robots are going to be scoring. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to compete with them.”
Getting to the Regionals has meant, to the team, a step towards regaining a position in the robotics world that the team once held. In 2011 the LREI robotics team represented the region in the World Championship in St. Louis. A few years later, as the final members of the successful team were graduating, the team primarily consisted of underclassmen and seniors.
“In ninth grade, we had the seniors who had been on the team for a long time and they kind of ran the show,” Mark said. Team captain Harry Kassen elaborated. “My first year here, there was an established group of seniors who were running the team….There was a structure in place so we all sort of knew what we were doing,” he said.
The senior grade was so strong, though, that they did not consider the future of the team. When they graduated the team was left with no core group to carry the team forward, and to make matters worse, their coach left the team due to commuting issues.
“All the seniors were gone,” Kassen said, “they had graduated and the coach left…We were more or less on our own.”
Mark added, “When they left, they didn’t really pass any of that knowledge down.e were left with a team that didn’t really know what we were doing.”
The team would not give up that easily though. Without a dedicated coach nor the guidance of experienced members, the team had to organize themselves for their 2015 season.
“Harry Kassen really took charge,” Mark said.
Kassen elaborated: “I went up to Micah at the beginning of [tenth grade] and asked ‘What’s the strategy here? We don’t have a coach, we don’t have student leaders,’ and at that point he asked me, ‘Who am I talking to?’ So I kind of ended up having to step up and take responsibility for making sure the team existed that year.”
The revival of the robotics team had begun, but it was not an instant process. Even with immense student support and enthusiasm, the team lacked guidance and experience.
“It was challenging,” Mark said, “and definitely affected our success. It was a learning experience as well.”
After their initial year without guidance, the team learned from their mistakes and improved immensely this season.
“We learned from last year what works and what doesn’t work so it was definitely a lot easier this year,” said Kassen.
Though a relatively small and disorganized team, enthusiasm and dedication of the team members this season has brought this incarnation of the team to a new level.
“This was an incredibly successful season,” Kassen said, “because we’ve got these dedicated people willing to put in the hours to make sure there is something that we’re really happy to put out on the field.”
“They put in a lot of hours,” Mark said.
Although knocked out of the competition, the team is already looking forward to next year.
“The next season starts now,” Kassen said. “I need to focus on what sort of supplies we need, what we are going to learn from this year.”
In light of what happened to the team when the seniors graduated a few years back, Kassen and the team are working to make sure history does not repeat itself.
“We really don’t want to repeat [what happened when the seniors graduated in 2015] and it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the same issue,” Kassen said. “We’re going to make sure that everyone gets a chance to drive the robot. We’re going to make sure that everybody gets a chance to be a part of it.”
Although placing an impressive sixth out of thirty teams at the regionals competition, only the top five teams were able to advance. With the loss behind him, Kassen explained that his learning experience with the robotics team exceeded the robots.
“It’s really just a way to learn how to be around people and be on a team,” Kassen said. “I think getting that out of it has been incredible for me and I think it’s been a great experience for everyone.”