Team 41 Matches

The Team 41 Robo Warriors have represented Watchung Hills Regional High School in the international FIRST Robotics Competition since 1997. In the 2008 Competition, they showed their talent at the New Jersey FIRST Regional Competition. In April, they will be attending the New York City Regional, to which everyone is invited, to strive for their goal of making the National Competition in Atlanta later in April.

The FIRST Organization (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) annually challenges high school robotics teams to design, construct and program a 5-foot robot to perform a designated task within a mere six week period. The 2008 challenge, Overdrive, is a game played on a Track with opposing Alliance teams of three robots each. The object of the game is to obtain a higher score than your opponent Alliance by making counter-clockwise laps around the Track, while Herding large Trackballs (approx. 10lbs) under the Overpass or Hurling the Trackballs over it (6½ feet high). Recently, in the New Jersey Regional competition at the end of February, the Robo Warriors placed 5th in points out of the 63 teams present at the Sovereign Bank Arena, scored by competing to the quarterfinal rounds. This was an immense improvement from placing dead last in 2007 and has drawn attention to this student-run team from the engineers, mentors and students of the highest-ranking international teams! As a team, our goal is to bring technology to the forefront of our culture and we have already succeeded in encouraging high school students to pursue a career in engineering. Team 41 aims to continue their streak in the New York Regional at the Javits Center April 4-6th and graciously invites everyone in the community to come out and support the team as they compete for a position at Nationals!

The 2008 Robo Warriors have been mentored by Michael Kutch, with the assistance of woodshop teacher Bill Mulligan and retired teacher Andrew Furlong. Professional engineers Bill Tompkins and Jeff Erickson, returning alum, from the local Anadigics Company provided endless resources and experience to the students on Team 41. Technical direction was also provided by James Giacchi, former team captain, professional engineer and officer candidate in the New Jersey Army National Guard.

For more information about the Robo Warriors, please visit www.team41robotics.com or feel free to email them at robowarriors@yahoo.com.