And now for another update of Robotics. This article has been written by a robot…no, not really but I am going to write one with ChatGPT and see what happens. Then I can go vacation in the BVI with the rest of you. Ahem, back to real-ish life…

The following update was provided by Cary Gumbert, who was last seen as the Alpine Ski Team coach, but also finds time to lead the Robotics teams from his garage. Ummm, what? In any case, there’s some fun Robotics news and of course another call-out to support these students (and others) through WEEFC donation and a Robotics lab. Because seriously, people, the WEEFC matching donation deadline cometh anon (see what you do with that, ChatGPT) and you need to get crackin’.

From Cary:

WHS GNCE Diamond 22489 and GNCE Carbon 18754 attended their second robotics qualifier on February 12. The two teams partnered up and finished the elimination matches as the Winning Alliance. This means that both WHS teams will advance to the MA state championships on March 4th along with 34 other teams from around the state. I believe this is the first time we have had 2 WHS teams qualify for the State Championship in a single year.  In addition to winning the alliance matches, the teams also held the high score of the day. GNCE Carbon 18754 won the Think Award which is the top engineering design process award based on their 15 page engineering portfolio, a 5 minute presentation and interviews with teams of judges throughout the day between matches.

It is rare to qualify for states given the number of high quality programs and competition in Massachusetts. Two teams will advance from each qualifier based on their results in addition to the school who hosts the qualifier. With 10 teams hosting qualifiers, that leaves 26 slots. 

This rarity is especially true for a mostly freshman team, but the level of knowledge transfer and mentoring from the veteran Carbon team to both Diamond and the multiple middle school teams over the last two years is starting to generate results. I expect that hard work will become obvious over the next few years if we can make the GNCE Robotics and Engineering Lab become reality. My garage isn’t big enough to hold the current two HS teams let alone more teams as they move up to the high school level of competition over time.

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In other words, Weston, we can all chip in to buy Cary a bigger garage…or I believe they are now called “Car Barns” here in semi-rural metrowest…or we can just donate to WEEFC by zapping these QR codes or sending a check (but not from the Colpitts drop box–drop it in the actual post office). Donations will be matched up to $50,000 by February 28. Go, Weston, go!

Congratulations to the Weston teams for their efforts and success so far, and good luck in States! Go ‘cats!

PS. Donate to WEEFC or these robots will find you and re-arrange your sock drawer.

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Robot description. The black robot weighs 65lbs so it can stay in one spot and deliver cones to 9 different spots without driving via a 5 foot arm on a turret that can reach 360 degrees in any direction.  It was designed by the kids in CAD and 3D printed by one of our sponsors, MarkForged, on their industrial printer with continuous carbon fiber reinforcements.

The clear robot so far has been very agile in traversing the field and very reliable. When they join forces as an alliance they really complement each other.