Calling All Robotics Fans!

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Did you see our school’s recent Robotics competition? If you didn’t, don’t worry – there is more to come!

On January 20, 2018, teams from Westchester County, Somers, Albany, and the tri-state area gathered at Peekskill High School for our Second Annual First Tech Challenge (FTC) Peekskill Robotics Tournament.  Many students and staff members came out to volunteer and support our team during this exciting tournament.  

Robotics is a unique class at our school.  During the year, we work together to build robots in order to compete and showcase our engineering skills. Our school has two teams:  The Iron Devils consists of our experienced student engineers, while the Mechanical Devils consists of our rookie team.

Unfortunately, our Mechanical Devils didn’t win at our January event, but our Iron Devils had the chance to advance to the next competition.  

It was amazing to see how each team was different and how everyone used gracious professionalism with the other teams.

“It was cool,” said Majaci’d Alexander, a senior here at PHS who is also one of the proud Iron Devils. She elaborated:  “We got to see what is was like behind the scenes and what it was like to set up a competition.  It was also cool to see a bunch of different teams come to our small town, Peekskill to compete.”  

The Exchange Club was selling concessions during lunch and break time, and a few members of the Newspaper Club and Yearbook were there to take photos of this memorable event. Kennedy Bordas sang our National Anthem at the competition and was also a game announcer. Our superintendent, Dr. Mary Foster, was there showing her Red Devil spirit.

Thank you to all who came out to support Peekskill High School’s very own robotics teams. Special thanks to those who came out in the early hours of the morning to help set up and to volunteer. Even though our competing team didn’t win, we still had a great time competing and seeing everyone there.  

PHS Robotics Teacher Mr. Carlo Vidrini deserves recognition for being such an inspirational coach and for helping to put this competition together for the second year in a row.  A special thank you to Mr. Arthur for supporting this event and helping to bring it to fruition.  We’re grateful that Mr. Brown was there to capture it on film.  We also want to share recognition to the parents who were there lending support for their children in so many ways.  We know that you are the reason that we have our teams.

If you want to catch the next competition, come to the Rube Goldberg Challenge at the Engineering Show held at White Plains High School on April 5, 2018.  Winners of that competition will advance to the National Championship in Chicago!  Save the date, and go Devils!