Two Pope John robotics teams going to state championship

Two robotics teams from Pope John XXIII Regional High School have earned spots to compete at the state championship, “Garden State Rumble,” on Sunday, March 12.

Forty-eight teams will take part in the event at Morris Knolls High School in Rockaway.

The top four teams will advance to the world championship held in Houston in April. Both competitions are open to the public.

The two Pope John teams are a part of FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), a world-renowned engineering-based robotics program for high school students.

The program was founded by philanthropist Dean Kamen; inventor of the Segway and many innovative medical and tech devices.

In FIRST, students must strategize the best way to score points in a robot competition, then design, build and program their robot to accomplish their goals. In addition to the robot matches played on a competition field, teams must develop community outreach programs, make professional connections, document all of their work in an engineering notebook, present their accomplishments to a panel of judges, and support their work by answering a multitude of questions from the judges and more.

Robotics is cosidered a varsity sport at Pope John.

Team 247 Reboot and Team 248 Fatal Error have a 16-year history with FTC and are going strong during the Power Play competition, which runs from September through April.

After top finishes during regular-season competitions, both teams battled it out against 19 others at the New Jersey Far North/Northern League Tournament on Feb. 11 at Glen Rock High School.

Team Reboot maintained its first-place rank in the Northern New Jersey League all season. It also developed a community-enhancing program called Fundamentals of Robotics at the Sparta Library, in which students teach robotics to local children through a workshop series.

Team Reboot also created a recycling machine that turns discarded water bottles into 3D-printer filament that members use to make parts for their robot.

Reboot juniors Anika Rodrigues and Will Zerden are New Jersey State Deans List semifinalists because of their leadership skills on the team and their spearheading of the two projects.

The innovation of the recycling machine and the community workshop program helped the team earn the highest award at the league tournament. The Inspire Award is earned by the team that has the best overall qualifications, including robot, community outreach, professional connections, documentation, teamwork and gracious professionalism (good sportsmanship.)

Team Fatal Error came in third for the Inspire Award but walked away with the third-highest award, Connect, at the league tournament. The Connect Award was earned through Fatal Error’s development of professional connections. They focused much of their time this season on meeting with engineers and tech companies, such as iRobot, NASA, Accurate Neuromonitoring and more. Professional connections are a valuable tool for the students, exposing them to potential career paths.

“We are extremely proud of the hard work, dedication to honing engineering and programming skills, teamwork and perseverance of both teams,” said robotics coach Katherine Rizzo.

“Their determination has resulted in success throughout the season, and both Reboot and Fatal Error have a great shot at achieving high honors at the state championship, and have the potential to advance to the world Championship.”

Both teams will be participating in Makers Day activities March 25 at the Sparta Library.