Louisiana’s top team
Hammond Robotics finishes high in contest
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HAMMOND — The Hammond High Robotics Team was the last Louisiana team still standing, going into the final competition at the 2008 Bayou Regional Robotics’ final competition held March 27 in New Orleans.
Going up against 47 teams from all over the country, the Hammond students’ robot, Vortex-02, was one match away from the final one.
Its job was to perform tasks with a 40-inch-diameter ball on a track set up at the New Orleans Convention Center, working in an alliance with two other robots. The robot alliances changed throughout the rounds of the competition, the students said.
Then, “someone knocked us over,” said team strategist Sadie Mannino, 18.
It was one of those “pulling-your-hair moments,” recalled team member Kyle Kraemer, 17.
Still, the Hammond Robotics Team walked away as the highest-ranked Louisiana team and gained more experience competing in a program called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
The mission of the international student robotics program is to “inspire young people to be science and technology leaders,” according to the group’s Web site, at http://www.usfirst.org.
“To have a second-year team go as far as they did is exceptional,” said Shelly Gaydos, a physics and algebra teacher at Hammond High, who’s also a robotics team sponsor, along with Julia Kemp.
While high competition results are rewarding, they aren’t the primary goal of the team, the students said.
“The whole point is to promote working together,” said Derric Boudreaux, 18.
“It’s really like a family,” Mannino said of the team.
“Their biggest strength is their enthusiasm,” said Fred Epperson, the team’s mentor and an industrial arts vocational instructor at the school. said. “These are very bright kids having fun doing something that’s hard.”
Twenty students, ninth-graders through seniors, including a five-member student leadership team, led by team captain Andrew Miller, 17, make up the robotics team.
Some students who aren’t team members, with an interest in the project, also came by to help, Gaydos said.
The students designed and built their remote-controlled robot earlier in the year, from a kit provided by FIRST, then shipped it off to the competition site in February. They had a day or two to get reacquainted with Vortex-02 before the March event.
At rest, the robot is at about 5 feet, but can extend up to 8 feet and features two large rings it uses as “hands.”
“Our robot is one of the very few designed, built and fixed totally by the students,” Mannino said.
Operating the controls at the competitions were students Alan Bartow, 16, and Kendall Gomez, 17, who performed the same roles in the team’s first competitions last year.
Through fund-raisers, the team raised about $22,000 for its robot and the two regional competitions, and is already starting to plan for next year.
Going up against 47 teams from all over the country, the Hammond students’ robot, Vortex-02, was one match away from the final one.
Its job was to perform tasks with a 40-inch-diameter ball on a track set up at the New Orleans Convention Center, working in an alliance with two other robots. The robot alliances changed throughout the rounds of the competition, the students said.
Then, “someone knocked us over,” said team strategist Sadie Mannino, 18.
It was one of those “pulling-your-hair moments,” recalled team member Kyle Kraemer, 17.
Still, the Hammond Robotics Team walked away as the highest-ranked Louisiana team and gained more experience competing in a program called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
The mission of the international student robotics program is to “inspire young people to be science and technology leaders,” according to the group’s Web site, at http://www.usfirst.org.
“To have a second-year team go as far as they did is exceptional,” said Shelly Gaydos, a physics and algebra teacher at Hammond High, who’s also a robotics team sponsor, along with Julia Kemp.
While high competition results are rewarding, they aren’t the primary goal of the team, the students said.
“The whole point is to promote working together,” said Derric Boudreaux, 18.
“It’s really like a family,” Mannino said of the team.
“Their biggest strength is their enthusiasm,” said Fred Epperson, the team’s mentor and an industrial arts vocational instructor at the school. said. “These are very bright kids having fun doing something that’s hard.”
Twenty students, ninth-graders through seniors, including a five-member student leadership team, led by team captain Andrew Miller, 17, make up the robotics team.
Some students who aren’t team members, with an interest in the project, also came by to help, Gaydos said.
The students designed and built their remote-controlled robot earlier in the year, from a kit provided by FIRST, then shipped it off to the competition site in February. They had a day or two to get reacquainted with Vortex-02 before the March event.
At rest, the robot is at about 5 feet, but can extend up to 8 feet and features two large rings it uses as “hands.”
“Our robot is one of the very few designed, built and fixed totally by the students,” Mannino said.
Operating the controls at the competitions were students Alan Bartow, 16, and Kendall Gomez, 17, who performed the same roles in the team’s first competitions last year.
Through fund-raisers, the team raised about $22,000 for its robot and the two regional competitions, and is already starting to plan for next year.
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