Above 2005-06 Coaches Judith Mosselle (first) and Matteo Tamburini (last) pose in Atlanta with three Robotics team members seated between them.  The robot (below left) and Coach Tamburini (center) and team members concentrate on the action (below right).

Annually one of the most stimulating, challenging and enjoyable competitions for young people is held called the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition founded by inventor Dean Kamen. His aim is to inspire young students’ interest and participation in science and technology. This competition for high school aged young people is sponsored by NASA and many other major companies. According to Kamen, this is a competition that “celebrates the reality that young people will respond to tough challenges not with excuses and distraction but with energy and innovative thinking.”     

This years’ competition coined “Aim High” by the organizers, pitted two three team alliances against each other in a game where robots had to compete to earn points by scoring goals with a ball.  The teams competed with robots they had built that had to meet certain specifications.  They competed in four periods, each of which had specific rules, playing both defense and offense with their robots.  The winning alliance moved on to compete again with the goal of reaching the finals.

West Side’s Robotics team this year participated in two major FIRST competitions. In the New Jersey Regionals, which they have entered for the past three years, they finally broke off the chains and made their way up to the semi-finals. With help from engineers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Mr. Micheals, the District Director of the Robotics programs, they played hard and tough. They are the first team in the District of Newark to make it that far.

Robotics coaches Mr. Tamburini and Ms. Mosselle, helped the team prepare mentally and physically for the challenge ahead. In the Trenton Regional competition they placed seventh out of the twelve hundred teams from all over the world. With this victory, they advanced to the World Robotics Championship competition where the best of the best from all regional FIRST events competed at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. 

Although the RoughRiders were unable to perform as they planned due the use of a part in the robot that disqualified them from some elements of the competition, they still did well and are determined to do even better next year.