HHH Robotics Teams Make Regionals
“I’m very proud to be able to show Long Island that our team is one to be reckoned with…” said Alex Huang, the co-captain of Rise, one of the three teams from our district that qualified for Regionals.
This robotics season, the Half Hollow Hills FTC Robotics teams, Rise, Invicta, and Vega, competed in two qualifying tournaments on January 14th and 15th. This season all three teams qualified for the Long Island Championships (regionals), which has never happened in Half Hollow Hills.
Another achievement for our district is how the HHH robotics team, Rise 8109, was the first to win a qualifying tournament.
A breakdown of the teams: There are four main sections of the group: build and design, programming, engineering notebook, and outreach. Each team section works the entire season leading up to the competition to make their robot and programs the best.
Engineering Notebook: The process of documenting everything during the season and putting it into a neat and concise presentation. Without this section, everything the team has done could be for naught regarding awards.
Design and Build: The process of designing and building utilizing problem-solving skills to build the robot for the competition. This involves CAD-ing and the will to speak up about their designs.
Programming: The process of making sure the robot works in the best possible way it can. The programming department’s primary goal is to make things as easy as possible for the driver as it is the link between robot and human. During the competition, outreach members scout each robotic team and collect information to see which team would benefit them the most.
A breakdown of the competition: All FTC matches are 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. Each team is paired up with a different robotics team at random. For each new match, your team is selected to be with a different team, so your allies may become enemies.
There are also several strategies used to gain more points.
An example would be connecting two specific points on a field by having your cone be the last one on the junction; you receive a bonus of 20 points. Another way would be to utilize a beacon. Each team makes a beacon, usually 3d printed, and can be placed at the top of each junction for an extra 10 points.
Before the matches start, there is much to do. One of the significant parts of the competition is the judges’ room, where individual teams present their robot and hard work, including outreach and engineering notebook, to the judges. The team was also asked questions like “What Moment in all of your outreach events has been the most impactful? “
Let’s start with Rise 8109. In the first qualifier (Saturday), Rise won 1st place in Innovate Award and got the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd highest record score for a match on Long Island (173 with their alliance Islandbots). In the second qualifier (Sunday), their team did win not only 2nd in Innovate but also placed 2nd in Motivate and 1st in Think. Rise 8109 also did something that has never been done before in the history of Half Hollow Hills: they won a winning alliance. This means that they were chosen by one of the top 4 teams in the competition: Island Bots, a robotic team from the Stony Brook area, won the entire competition,
Next up is Invicta 8110. Invicta won 2nd place in Connect and 2nd Motivate Award in the first qualifier. In the second qualifier, they won 3rd place for inspire, 1st place for motivate, 3rd place for Connect, and 3rd place for Think.
Lastly, Vega 7407. In the first qualifier, Vega won 3rd place in inspire and 1st place in design. They were in the semifinalist alliance in the second qualifier, picked by Kuiper from Locust Valley.
Congratulations to the HHH Robotics team. All the best at regionals!
