Sharon Robotics Team Wins Awards at State Championship

SHARON, Pa. – The Sharon High School robotics team received two awards at the recent First Tech Challenge Pennsylvania state championship.

The team, which consists of 11 middle and high school students in the Sharon City School District, competed against the top 36 teams from around the state, winning the first place Promote Award and the second place Motivate Award.

The Promote Award is given to the team that is most successful in creating a compelling message for the public designed to change the culture and celebrate science, technology, engineering and math. The Motivate Award celebrates the team that represents the essence of the First Tech Challenge competition. 

Since August, the team has been designing and building a robot that completes tasks on a playing field that is 12 feet by 12 feet. The robot must run autonomously for 30 seconds, and then is driver controlled for two minutes. The goal this season required the team to create a vision system for object detection and use sensors to detect field elements. The objectives for the robot were to move pixels or plastic discs onto locations on the field, to hang the robot on a bar and to deliver a drone/paper airplane across the field.  

In addition to building the robot, the Sharon team has been involved in connecting with the STEM community. The team visited Cattron Intelligent Solutions in Warren, Ohio, to learn about STEM careers; invited a safety specialist from Penn State to help it develop a safety plan; visited NASA Glenn Research Center; and also visited the Navy Air and Warfare Center in Lakehurst, New Jersey, to learn about its role in launching airplanes off of aircraft carriers. The team also learned about the various STEM careers the Navy has to offer, including active duty and civilian jobs.  

Pictured at top: Members of the Sharon High School robotics team are, front row from left, Jordan Prelerson, Mary Brown, Naima Allen, Ian Fischer and Ben Fiscus; and back row from left, Matthew Schimp, Kaytlen Moroney, Keegan Widmyer, Kayden Moroeny, Warren Hackett and Tony Gaggini.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.