Learn how Hewlett High School's Bionica robotics team is going global

Hewlett High School’s all-girls robotics team is seeing the results of months of preparation. After dedicating Friday nights since September to building a robot, meeting with mentors and collaborating with other young engineers, the team will compete in the international FIRST Championship of robotics in Houston next month.

“It was so nice, so rewarding to see the fruits of our labor, and that all the hard work we put in during the season pay off,” said Sidrah Ashrafi, a co-captain of the team, which calls itself Bionica.

The team competed in a number of regional events to earn their spot at the championship.
FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — is a global nonprofit that hosts team robotics competitions for kindergartners through high school seniors.

There are state competitions around the country, and New York and California host regional events, with the season culminating at the championship.

At events on Long Island, as many as two dozen teams compete for awards in categories with names like Inspire, Think, Connect and Innovate, with the focus on collaboration and cooperation, as well as professionalism and understanding.

“FIRST really asks for a team to act like a small business,” Janine Torresson, Hewlett High’s robotics coach, explained. “They want to know that the team understand that robots cost money, that time is an expense, that you need to have science business personal connections. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum.”

This school year the students were asked to design a robot that performed tasks showcasing motor skills and efficiency. Bionica has met most Fridays since September from 3 to 9 p.m. to develop its robot.

Throughout the year, team members have also shared their skills with elementary-school students in the Hewlett-Woodmere District at science nights and after-school programs.

“Robotics — it’s not just about the robot, the technical skills and stuff, we do a lot more community outreach,” Rachel Chen, a Bionica co-captain, said.

Bionica earned first and second place in the Inspire category, the highest honor at Long Island qualifying competitions in January and February, to earn an invitation to the Houston event.

“It felt so rewarding,” Ashrafi said.

Torresson has been coaching Bionica since 2016. Hewlett High has sent one of its three teams to the championship in each of the past three years, their other two teams named Roboboogie and Innoovo.

“It is a proud moment for any principal to have a team qualify for the World Championships,” Hewlett High Principal Alexandra Greenberg wrote in a statement. “It is an even prouder moment to have a qualifying team three years in a row, but it is the proudest moment to have the All Girl Robotics team perform at the highest regional levels and travel to the World Championships to represent Hewlett-Woodmere!”

Bionica will compete against other qualifiers in Houston April 17-20.

Torresson said she was excited to see Bionica’s hard work recognized. “It’s like in the Olympics, when you’re suddenly in line to get the bronze medal and someone saying you have the skill if you do these things, to get the gold,” Torresson said. “You don’t necessarily see your success (throughout the building process), because you’re not measuring that.”

She also said she was thrilled to see an all-girls team do so well.

“Bionica has this piece that they’re very well aware that what they’re doing is not the norm for females,” Torresson said. “It’s empowering.”