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Schools

CHS Team Wins 2nd in Robotics Contest

Team from applied physics and engineering club simulated its project during BOE meeting.

A team of students from Chatham High School’s applied physics and engineering club won second place, as well as $4,000 each, in the Panasonic Robotic Competition in April and simulated the project during Monday’s board of education meeting.

Advised by physics teacher David Bandel, the trio of senior Drew Lilley and juniors Austin Barkhorn and Christopher Hartigan designed the project themselves using a pre-approved list of household items that included tongue depressors, popsicle sticks, toothpicks and paper clips. Teams were not allowed to use plywood or sheets of metal.

“It was a bunch of things you’d have to be really creative with to do anything,” Lilley said.

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Bandel explained that only materials provided by the competition for the team to use were motors, gears and batteries.

Completing the Tasks

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Bandel explained that every competition has a theme and this year’s – announced in October 2012 – was “Creating a Green Future.” The first task of the final competition on April 24 involved releasing the device into the middle of the “playing field,” as the team members called it, and get it as close to the center as possible.

After releasing the device for Monday’s presentation to the board of education, Lilley joked the team “would have lost points” after it traveled slightly past the center of the playing field.

The Chatham team, as well as the 27 others competing that day, had three tries of five minutes each during the competition to accomplish as many pre-determined tasks as possible using the device. The tasks included spinning a windmill 360 degrees; picking up various items, such as nails and bottle caps, and putting them in recycling containers; turning off light switches; transplanting mini trees into tiny bins; and placing solar panels on tiny houses.

Making things more difficult, judges released marbles on the playing field during each try to create obstacles for the devices. Barkhorn explained that two team members manned controllers while the other directed them.

Lilley explained that the team got better with each try, accomplishing 70 percent of the tasks the first time and 90 percent the last time.

Lilley said the team became strategic with the tasks they performed, choosing the ones they both knew they could accomplish and would garner them the most points.

“Their initial mindset was there was no way to complete everything in five minutes, so focus on as many things they could accomplish with the fundamental means of doing it,” Bandel said.

For instance, the three Chatham students chose to focus on transplanting the trees, which they simulated Monday for meeting attendees, instead of placing the solar panels, which Lilley said caused some problems for other teams.

Lilley explained that the teams’ performances with their devices were only worth 50 percent of the project. They also had to give an oral presentation and present a 150-page log book.

Against the Competition

Bandel said that, what possibly differentiated the Chatham students from other schools, is that they took the time to learn computer-aided design, or CAD, which helped them design about 95 percent of the device before physically assembling it.

“When you saw some of the schools we were up against, it was kind of intimidating,” Lilley said. “Every single one had some nice label tacked on to the name like the ‘school of engineering and sciences’ or ‘academy of technology.’”

At the preliminary competition in January, there were more than 40 teams, but only 28 performed well enough to earn an invitation to the finals at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

In addition to the team of Lilley, Barkhorn and Hartigan, another CHS team vied for a spot in the competition but did not make the cut. Lilley was on a team that came in fourth in the 2012 competition.

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