The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Franklin High School’s cafeteria and gym were the venues February 23 for a robotics competition that drew about 200 participants.
A total of 39 robots – including several from Franklin High School – were brought to the VEX Robotics Competition by students from 18 high schools, said David Bitko, the FHS robotics club advisor. Students came from schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, he said.
“I’m just hoping that our kids are more inspired by being able to host something like this and see something like this on our own turf, so to speak,” he said. “Who knows what the future will bring.”
Each year, the VEX company creates games – played on 12-foot-by 12-foot “fields” – for the robot teams to compete in. For the FHS tournament, the two-on-two competition was having the robots pick up rings and put them over a stake within a specified time frame. There was also a skills competition, in which the teams put their robots through a variety of tasks to score points.
Points are scored in competitions during the season, which runs from December through March. Based on the points won, teams can qualify for state competitions, and then on to national competitions.
“It’s actually very hard to qualify even to go to States,” Bitko said.
Helping out during the day were members of the Franklin High School JROTC Warrior Battalion, which also fielded a team.
William King was on hand with ROTC to handle the administrative tasks of the competition, and helped his team get squared away.
Rohan Amin, an FHS Junior, and Uche Azu-Ogba, a Sophomore, were members of the Rocket Team, another FHS squad participating in the event.
The Rocket Team’s robot pulled the ring up a ramp, then clawed it to put it over the stake.
Amin has been a member of the club since his Freshman year, he said.
“Robotics and engineering is something that is very interesting to me, so I might continue doing it in college,” he said.
Azu-Ogba has also been in the club since his Freshman year.
He said he likes teh aspects of creating the robots and taking them into competitions.
“The sort of satisfaction that comes from knowing that you created something that can complete a task, make something easier,” he said. “I definitely feel like robotics and engineering is a really needed and really exciting career to take, so I definitely plan on doing something with it in college.”
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