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Big Win for Rookie Robotics Team

The Bridgehampton Robotics Team includes, in front from left, Isaiah Aqui, Jada Pinckney, Milo Youngerman, Jamari Gant, and Madi Koral; in the middle row, Michael Smith and Matthew Hostetter, and Harriett DeGroot, Dylan Breault, Claudio Figueroa, and Laura Uribe (not pictured).
The Bridgehampton Robotics Team includes, in front from left, Isaiah Aqui, Jada Pinckney, Milo Youngerman, Jamari Gant, and Madi Koral; in the middle row, Michael Smith and Matthew Hostetter, and Harriett DeGroot, Dylan Breault, Claudio Figueroa, and Laura Uribe (not pictured).
Christine Sampson
Riding eighth place in regional contest, Bridgehampton will try for championship
By
Christine Sampson

Rookie robotics students from the Bridgehampton High School are getting ready for national competition after an eighth-place finish at last week’s FIRST Robotics Competition, while students from Pierson High School and East Hampton High School are savoring a creativity award they received for their efforts at the same event.

Dubbed Team Supreme, the 11 robotics students from Bridgehampton were not sure what to expect when they entered their first-ever competition. They competed against about 50 other teams from across Long Island and from as far away as Brazil, Israel, and Canada, and were ranked as high as fourth during the various rounds before finishing in sixth place in the general tournament and then eighth in the final round. The team also took home an All-Star Rookie Team Award. Claudio Figueroa, a senior, and Dylan Breault, a junior, the Bridgehampton captains, said the results exceeded their expectations.

“It was awesome. Our first year, I wouldn’t have expected it,” Claudio said. “We all feel really accomplished.”

“Just to be there was a great experience in itself, and then to come out in the top six was unbelievable,” Dylan added.

Jamari Gant, a junior who is the team’s operator and mechanic, was named the team’s most valuable player.

“I’ve never been in a room full of people who also love what I do, too,” Jamari said.

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, challenges teams to build a working robot — in many cases weighing more than 100 pounds — over the course of six weeks using a standard set of parts.

With 38 members, the combined team from Pierson and East Hampton finished 29th and earned the Xerox Creativity Award from the judges.

“We used a vacuum system with suction cups that we made on a 3D printer that the program won earlier in the year. People were impressed with how well it worked and how simple it really was,” said Clint Schulman, coach of the Sag Harbor and East Hampton team, along with Trevor Gregory.

Sag Harbor’s team has been competing since 1995. Mr. Schulman said the competition emphasizes not only critical thinking and engineering and computer skills, but also concepts like teamwork and overcoming adversity.

“We definitely had our problems during the competition, and were able to fix the majority of them,” he said. “I hope they take the time to reflect on all the skills they have acquired throughout the year.”

Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz, a Bridgehampton teacher who supervises the team along with Ken Giosi, acknowledged the tremendous help that Team Supreme received from the Sag Harbor and East Hampton team both before and during the competition.

“Gracious professionalism is one of the basic tenets of the FIRST philosophy,” Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz said. “You help each other achieve your goals, even though you’re competing against each other. They gave us such great help.”

Bridgehampton advances to the championship round, to be held in St. Louis between April 22 and April 25, where the team will face 600 others from around the world.

 

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