CHS Robotics Senior Team Awarded Slot in World Championships in St. Louis, April 26-29 -- new title started 3/22
Link to the Village Green article on the tournament
The Columbia HS Senior Team -- 4102 -- made it to the state semi-finals! They had an excellent season and have contributed a great deal to the school and the club with their innovation, dedication and teamwork. I will certainly miss them!
The Columbia HS Sophomore Team -- 7959 -- made it to the state quarter-fnials. Likewise they had an excellent season and contributed a great deal to the ongoing program here at Columbia. I will have them for two more years and I expect they will continue the program we have and make it even better before they graduate.
Next year we will have four teams once again -- probably organized by grade level -- competing in the US FIRST organization's FTC Division. This year The New Jersey FTC Division had north of 150 teams.
Almost all the funds we raise come from grants from companies like Qualcomm, team member fees, grants from Achieve and the Cougar Boosters, and from various fundraisers.
If anyone would like to volunteer, please PM me.
Four years that meant more to our son than any teenager will probably admit. Thank you for everything, Jude.
I don't want to scoop you, Jude, but I have my sources, and they're excited.
Well, in reference to DaveSchmidt's post, the senior robotics team at Columbia, Team 4102, was on a WaitList for the World Championships in St. Louis, April 26 thru 29. Waitlist teams are ranked by their historic record and how they did this year. Team 4102 was awarded a slot in St. Louis today by US FIRST. Over the past 7 years, this is Team 4102's record:
State champions in 2011 and 2013; in 2013 Team 4102 shared it with another CHS team, Team 5332.
Vermont State champions (2013) and PA state champions (2012)
Semifinalist in the downstate NY state region (2012)
Semifinalist in NJ in 2012, 2016 and this year, 2017 and our sister team, Team 7959 (sophomores) made it to the Quarterfinals
Inspire Award winner in 2014 (goes to best overall club in state)
Second place in World in 2011
Semifinalist in the World championships in 2013
This year CHS was also awarded a large (for us) grant from the Qualcomm Corporation to initiate a program to include students with disabilities in robotics in an after school program. This is the first of its type in the US FIRST organization and Qualcomm is one of the largest funders of US FIRST.
If you go back and check, there is not one high school -- public or private -- in NJ that comes close to the record of CHS's robotics program.
We have four teams and this year, one for each grade level.
In addition, the success of the club led to the establishment of a robotics course at the high school.
These events, in turn, led the Achieve Foundation -- who has backed this effort from Day 1 -- to create a Maker Madness Committee and that is now a huge program. The Achieve Foundation has also focused a major portion of its grants program on STEAM initiatives. Also, the CHS Cougar Boosters have likewise been huge supporters of the Club since its inception.
Finally, what also helped this club and its teams do well is our annual RoboCATastrophe robotics tournament at CHS. We have the largest tournament in NJ outside of the state championships -- 36 teams and well over 1000 people come in and watch. We go to other tournaments with similar number of teams and the venue only has a few parents and siblings and maybe half as many people in attendance. Teams come to CHS and declare it one of the best venues in the state for a tournament -- the club goes out of its way to make robotics exciting to a broader audience.
Given the District budget we will be initiating some fundraising efforts to get the team, its aging adviser and the robot to St. Louis. More on this soon.
And I should add: this team has a wonderful cast of characters -- great kids, hardworking, smart and fun to be around!! DaveSchmidt's "source" is one of those kids who have make this a great team!!!
So Thank you!
Team 4102 is beginning a fundraising campaign to get the team and the robot and tools etc to St. Louis. I will post more on this later once we have the details worked out.
The GoFundMe site (www.GoFundMe.com) has climbed over $5600 in 5 days! If you go to the site, type in ColumbiaRobotics (no spaces, Initial caps) and you can see where things stand.
Yesterday (Saturday) Team 4102 had a practice scrimmage down at DeVry with other teams heading to Worlds. Those teams had a much longer lead time on knowing they were going to Worlds. Our team had to order parts, re-arrange schedules and figure out fundraising, airlines, hotels etc. Of course, some of our deliveries got lost by the shipper, so we lost some time. As of Friday, the team had made a lot of adjustments and added new capabilities, but no time to test them out (that's what engineering is about -- try and fail and try again.)
At the meet on Saturday we were ably assisted by an outstanding club from Edison (like Columbia,this club has many teams) . Columbia's Team 4102 shared the state championship with this club in 2011 so we go way back (well, 7 years) with them. Our guys and their guys worked together to fix some problems -- wiring, software etc. By the end of the scrimmage our robot was doing very well and the team members are confident they can now work to make this into a championship-contending robot. Within the USFIRST organization there is a very high level of cooperation and sportsmanship -- when teams need help, other teams are right there to help with tools, parts, programming. We have been to tournaments where a team says "a motor has burned out and we have no more" and -- no exaggeration here -- within minutes multiple motors appear at that team's worktable. Our guys do the same -- they have helped many teams over the last seven years fix problems, programming, and parts.
Anyway, this group of kids -- all 13 of them -- are a really great group! The two towns, the District, Columbia and the community should be proud of them!!
Inching over $6100 by this morning!! If you feel a strong urge to part with some money, try the GoFundMe site for ColumbiaRobotics!
Thanks to everyone who has helped us!!
ALmost at $7400 for the trip. If you have any friends, family members, "roboticists", groups, companies that would like to part with their hard-earned money, feel free to pass the link to them!
www.GoFundMe.com and look for ColumbiaRobotics
Thanks!!!
Almost at $8200 for the trip to St. Louis!
The team is very excited about the trip and are very appreciative of the support it has received from the community! The team leaves on 4/25 --- but (sigh) on United!
11 days and the team takes off to St. Louis! The GoFundMe site has now reach almost $8500!! We hope the reach the goal by next Friday so all expense accounts can be sorted out for the 13 team members and aging faculty adviser. The District, given the financial situation, is unable to fund any aspect of the trip. Simply shipping the robot and tools (the robot clearly cannot be "carry-on" luggage or gate-checked! And the tools are a bunch of items the TSA would have some doubts about. Lots of wires and batteries as well) out and back will be quite expensive.
And everyone promises to be very nice while on the UAL jets!
CHS Team is at the championship tournament at Union Station in St Louis. Judging starts in an hour for the team, matches start this PM.
Updates during the tournament will be via Twitter: @AllanTumolillo
Our GoFundMe account, set up by the Achieve Foundation. Is now at $10k. If you can help, go here: www.GoFundMe.com and look for ColumbiaRobotics
Thanks go all!
The view from above the team "pits" at the FTC tournament at Union Station.
Two Columbia HS Robotics teams will compete in the US FIRST State Championship Tournament on Sunday, Feb 26 at West Windsor-Plainsboro North HS.
Team 4102 is making its 6th appearance in 7 years at the tournament, having previously captured the State Championship twice (2011, 2013) and semi-finalist in 2016. Team 4102 also earned the Inspire Award in 2014 which in the opinion of the judges goes to the top club team -- based on performance, outreach, innovation, and community involvement. Team 4102 is made up of seniors.(In 2013 a second CHS team, 5332, shared the state championship with 4102.)
Team 7959 is making its first appearance at States and it is made up entirely of sophomores.
This year's junior team -- 5332 -- and freshmen/middle school team -- 9563 -- did not qualify into the state tournament but both teams did have good seasons.
All four CHS teams compete in the US FIRST FTC Division and in NJ there are over 150 teams in this division.