Chestnut Hill Team Taking on World Robotics Championship Competition

Robots are cool. Even cooler is the news that Team 1218, a robotics team made up of students from Chestnut Hill Academy and the Springside School, has a shot at a world championship in the field.

The team will travel to St. Louis later this month for the United Stated For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Championship, April 27-30. FIRST is an organization that is dedicated to promoting greater interest among students in science and engineering through robotics.

“We’ve got a beautifully designed, competitive robot this year,” says Peter Randall, the team’s lead advisor and head of the school’s new Engineering and Robotics Department.

The department was established earlier this year to integrate these disciplines into the curriculum at all grade levels. According to Deidra Lyngard, the Director of Communications for CHA, it is the only such department among independent schools in Philadelphia and one of the few in the nation.

The team took home awards from two regional competitions, the first was in February in Trenton.

In Trenton, Team 1218 placed 4th overall and received three awards: the GM Industrial Design award for best-designed robot; the “Coopertition Award” for demonstrating the FIRST value of friendly competition and helping an opponent to compete; and the Woody Flowers Mentor Award, given to Randall in recognition of his ability to “lead, inspire, and empower using excellent communication.”

In March, the team went on to the Chesapeake Regional Competition in Baltimore, where it suffered some initial setbacks that put it in 30th place out of 60 competitors after the first three rounds.

“We were so far down all you could see were our fingernails on the edge of the precipice, but the kids showed enormous determination, maturity and perseverance and fought their way back to the top,” Randall said.

These comeback kids climbed to #10 position by the end of the qualifying rounds and beat out their competitors in the quarter, semi, and final rounds and ended up placing 1st overall in the competition.

Again, Team 1218 was recognized with the GM Industrial Design Award thanks to the leadership and design guidance of engineering teacher and team mentor Rob Ervin.

“FIRST competitions are really not so much about the robots,” explains Randall. “They’re about design, creativity, leadership, strategy, and how you perform as a team. Our students faced a really tough challenge at Baltimore but they pulled together and showed the kind of character that we strive to instill in all our students. Now they’ll have an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in St. Louis.”