Portledge in the Now.

Upper School Robotics Kicks Off with Alumni Collaboration and Exciting Build Sessions

Danny Nelson
The Upper School Robotics Program is off and running!
First, we would like to thank all of the students who helped prepare for and/or participated in the Founders Day Coding and Robotics Challenge. It was great to have current students have some fun with the robots and get to collaborate with a few of our Portledge alumni. Current students were paired up with alumni who returned to collaborate on building and coding a robot in 90 minutes. Think Chopped or Nailed It! meets a Robotics Competition. Alumni that returned included Sander Davis ‘17, Aaron Vinsky ‘19, Evan Rubinstein ‘19, and Harrison Rubin ‘20.  Check out our Vidigami page for photos from the event. I hope this event has gotten students excited for the course and the Robotics Competition season!
 
In the Robotics classrooms, students have been busy learning about the engineering design process, going over tools and machinery they will be using throughout the course, and starting to explore the various robot ecosystems we use at Portledge (Tetrix, REV, and goBILDA). 
 
WHAT ARE BUILD SESSIONS?
Now that we have some of the foundational content covered, we are at the point where we will be having After School and Weekend "Build Sessions" as teams. These sessions are optional opportunities that complement the time spent in the classroom. Students who are part of the robotics program are assigned to one of our four Upper School FIRST Tech Challenge teams (check out the link to learn about the four teams and the Program) and will get the opportunity to work on their designs, builds, coding, and/or team strategy for an extended period of time. "Builds" run for about 4 hours (typically), but students do not need to stay the entire time; moreover, it is important to note that this is a structured time for students to work on Robotics-related projects and not a time to only socialize or hang out. Students are expected to come to these sessions with goals and objectives and to record their progress with our Project Management tool (ex. Kanban Board) and in the Engineering Notebook. 

Outside of class time, the teams held a successful Bake Sale to raise extra money (over $800) for parts and supplies and helped host the first, hopefully annual, Founders Day Robotics and Coding Challenge. 

Our first qualifier is scheduled for December. Last season, three of our teams qualified for the Long Island Championships, bringing home 2nd place in the Game Challenge and winning the Promote Award. Wish us luck for this season!
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