2022年3月7日

The robotics team had a phenomenal return to the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) competition space this year after almost two years of not being able to compete.

Encouraged by their first place Inspire Award win at a qualifying match in December of 2019, the team was poised and ready to take their robot to the next level in the spring of 2020. 唉, 随着大流行的到来, 他们的竞争选择被排除在外, but the 2020-2021 school year proved to be an excellent opportunity to work on skill building, 技术实力, 以及团队精神.

最后, 2021年9月到来, and the team was all hands on deck to prepare for their first qualifying match of the year in December. 致埃文·沃森, 计算机科学教员和机器人团队顾问, being back in the Schoolhouse was essential to the success of the team—on multiple levels.

“Building robots is a hands-on process and being together with the materials is critical for that process. 但在一起不仅对机器人的构造很重要, 这对团队成员来说也很重要. 它有助于协作, 以及沟通和对年轻学生的帮助, who may not have found their place in the Schoolhouse and the in-person meetings are a time to be together with students who share their interests. 尤其是对低年级学生, there is something tremendously valuable about having that time with the upperclassmen,他说.

作为FTC竞争的一部分, 参赛队伍需要建造一个尺寸约为18英寸x18英寸x18英寸的机器人。. This year’s robot was tasked with picking up wiffle balls and placing them in off balance stacking hubs. The team was fired up—being back building and competing in-person felt wonderful.

副队长Zoe S. ’22指出，“联邦贸易委员会的竞争对他们来说有很大的能量! 每个人总是盛装打扮，跳舞和庆祝. 当然, it was very challenging to come back from the pandemic (half our team had never done robotics “for real” before since we met online last year), 但这让我们对回归更加热情和兴奋!”

After many weekday afternoons and many “Saturday builds” spent in the Makerspace, 该队在12月初参加了本赛季的首场预选赛. They placed 10th out of 15 and successfully won the Motivate Award—thereby ensuring their place at the next qualifier.

副队长Ilana P. ’22, being on the robotics team has encouraged her to explore deeper into the world of computer science, 人工智能, 还有机器学习. Participating in the competitions provided the opportunity to continue asking questions. “There was never a point at which I felt that our robot was completely done because there was always a way to do better. Some of my fondest memories come from calculating strategies during the competition with the other teams that we would meet, while bonding over our collective knowledge and insights about the competition,伊拉娜说.

The final qualifier of the season took place at the High School for Construction Trades, 工程, 以及2月5日在皇后区举办的建筑展. 在难以置信的一天之后, “夜鹰”在“连接奖”中排名第一, which guaranteed their place in the city wide competition in March—marking the furthest the team had ever progressed.

“I remember that when it was announced that our team would be moving onto the next level—everyone was extremely excited. 我们互相拥抱着，又喊又跳，高兴得哭. It was one of those moments where everyone on the team came together to celebrate our accomplishments and speculate about the future,佐伊分享道。.

3月6日的比赛很激烈，但这支球队坚持了下来. 在30名选手中排名第17，并获得推广奖第三名, 这支球队完成了一个出色的赛季. 这一点尤其值得注意，因为正如佐伊上面所指出的那样, 超过一半的团队成员之前没有使用这些材料的经验. 她阐述了, “They developed their skill sets by directly engaging with topics that the competition goals lead us to find. 我们都是通过实践来学习的!’”

在整个赛季中. Watson was consistently impressed by the team’s drive to keep making improvements. 他指出, 每次比赛之间, 我们对机器人的设计作了重大修改/改进. We competed three times this year and each time we had a robot that was significantly different. That took a lot of work and a willingness by the students to not be satisfied by their designs and keep pushing, 作为一个团队，保持持续成功的重要因素是什么.”

Both Zoe and Ilana agreed that the wider robotics community has been incredibly supportive and they have worked to cultivate that same tight-knit community within the team at Nightingale. 当他们6月份毕业时，他们的领导力将在未来几年被感受到.

“我希望我带着共同学习的精神离开了这个团队. 我在机器人领域的第一年，团队相对较新. 结果是, we all had to learn how to do robotics together–we learned how to code by all coding together, 如何通过共同实验来构建, 等. 从那时起, I’ve tried to encourage that same spirit of teaching that I experienced as a younger student. 我很乐意看到这个团队继续下去，”佐伊反思道.

Ilana指出, “I hope I left them with the motivation and belief that with hard work and perseverance they can achieve any of their goals! 我知道作为这个团队的领导者是一个巨大的学习经历, and I hope that in the future the captains and members will have more ideas on how to work more efficiently together as a team, 更有效地沟通他们的想法, 从我们的经历和挣扎中学习. 在未来, I hope our robotics team continues along the path of establishing our presence as a competitive team (that’s hard to beat!)，以便在未来的纽约机器人比赛中有所表现.”

随着比赛季接近尾声，奥巴马说. Watson was feeling immensely proud of the team and excited for what is still to come in the future. “学生们对这个团队的承诺是巨大的. Our season spans multiple 运动 seasons and keeps students in the building late after school and on many weekends—and this commitment isn’t often known to the wider community. 虽然它在我们的社区中似乎是小众的, 这些是成千上万的学生参加的世界性比赛. 在一天结束的时候, 在机器人的构建周期中有太多的失败空间, 即使是最简单的机器人也是一项成就.”

跟随机器人团队的持续成功, 一定要关注他们的Instagram @nighthawk_robotics.