Clarke earns 'Coopertition' Award

“We just want to make the best robot we can,” said Joseph Palazzolo, a senior at W.T. Clarke High School who competed with his teammates, the Rambots, in the 13th annual Long Island Regional For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex last weekend.

Student members of the Clarke Robotics Club worked for six weeks, building and testing a robot named Maximus that could shoot baskets and balance on a wobbly bridge. While some schools consult professional engineers when building their robots, the Rambots built Maximus on their own.

Many club members were involved in the project’s planning, but eight students, each of whom logged more than 40 hours of work, were chosen to go head to head against more than 1,000 students on teams from 50 other high schools in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at FIRST’s Long Island regionals. “We did a lot of testing to see which ways work best,” said junior Alex Evangelatos. “The most fun is testing out different ways to shoot things.”

The Rambots came in 30th place behind the Plainedge High School Dragons, and will not be moving on to FIRST’s national finals in St. Louis April 25-28, but before the competition began, the team was confident that Maximus would put up a better fight than last year’s robot, with which they placed second to last. “The dedication is just overflowing this year,” said Palazzolo.

The students said that their robot-building experience has helped them hone critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. The hands-on work also reinforces information learned in school. “In English and math it’s all book and memorizing for the moment,” said senior Angel Flores. “This is hands-on, so I remember it.”

“We actually have to learn,” added Evangelatos, “[and] everyone has to be able to accept other people’s ideas.”

“You see your idea grow,” said senior Wei-Ming Koh. “Actually seeing it work is probably the best part.”

The students all said they plan to major in engineering in college, and that their work in robotics sharpened their career plans.