SHARON, Pa. – The Sharon Tiger Techs robotics team will compete against some of the highest performing robotics teams from around the world.
The Sharon Tiger Techs recently competed against 36 of the best teams in the state at the Pennsylvania First Lego League competition and received the Third Place Champions (overall) Award, which earned the team the title of No. 1 public/private school team in the state. As a result, the team has advanced to the Western Edge Invitational in Long Beach, Calif., which will be held May 30-June 1.
Before competing at the state championship, the team competed against 40 teams at the regional qualifier at Penn State Behrend. The Sharon team placed first overall and first with its robot performance score. The competition secured the team a spot in the state championship.
Over the past nine months, the team has designed, built and programmed a Lego Spike Prime robot to compete on a thematic playing field. The theme for this season, “Submerged,” challenged teams to program a robot autonomously for 2 ½ minutes to complete tasks related to the theme of ocean exploration. A few tasks involved the robot autonomously raising the mast of a ship, delivering sea creatures on the field and sending a submersible across the field. In all, robots had to complete 15 missions on the playing field.
In addition to the robot challenge, the Sharon team developed an innovative project solution to address a problem related to the topic of ocean exploration. The team learned that scuba divers can be distracted from monitoring important safety data, such as air supply. After speaking with experts in the scuba industry and multiple end users of scuba equipment, the team developed the Scuba Processor Auditory Link, an auditory scuba diving transmitter.
The Sharon robotics team is in its 15th season and is part of the First Lego League organization. The team consists of students in fourth through ninth grades in the Sharon City School District, under the leadership of Dave Tomko and Kelly Roys. The team is funded by sponsors and the school district.
Beyond competitions, the team has stayed active in the community by participating in and/or hosting outreach robotics events. The team has hosted multiple robotics camps for children in kindergarten through eighth grade, provided Girl Scout robotics badge training and traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in a robotics advocacy conference.
For more information about the team, visit its website.
Pictured at top: Members of the Sharon Tiger Techs robotics team. Front row, from left, are Luca Paoletta, Leah Crytzer, Sophie Nespor and Roman Adamo. Back row, from left, are Camille Klaric, Olivia Totin, Ian Connelly, Jacon Prelerson, Jasper Stanisky and Logan Patek.