Mansfield High School Competes in Boston Regional Robotics Competition

The Mansfield Robotics team is a small team of no more than 15 students in any given year but that makes them more like family, say team members.

“The people you’re with kind of become a little family and we all put our ideas in and try to find something that works,” said Stephanie Cramer, 17, at last month’s Boston Regional FIRST  competition at Boston University’s  Agganis Arena.

This is Cramer’s first year on the team.

“We have a relatively small team but we’ve been able to work together very well,” said team Vice President Marc Thomas, 18 and a senior.  Thomas joined the team because he thought it would be a natural fit.  “I’ve always had an interest in electronics and taking things apart to see how things work; and I very quickly got to learn how the different things that make a robot work.” 

James Jewkes has been on the team for three years.

“Since we’re a small team, everybody has the same amount of input, everybody’s ideas are taken into consideration,” said Jewkes, 16.  “During the ‘build season’ it’s a lot of time [commitment] but it’s all productive; you just feel good after a day working on it.”

Each year there is a new game for which the schools must design and build a team robot from a kit of materials provided to them in December.    They have six weeks to complete the robot.

This year’s game is called ‘LOGO MOTION’  and is played by two competing alliances on a flat 27’ x 54’ foot field. Each alliance consists of three robots. They compete to hang as many inflated plastic shapes (triangles, circles, and squares) on their grids as they can during a 2 minute and 15 second match. The higher the teams hang their game pieces on their scoring grid, the more points their alliance receives.  All robots are made completely by the students.

This is the second year on the team for Jeremy Breef-Pilz, 17.

“I liked the opportunity it gave me to work with systems and tools that I wouldn’t have access to on my own,” said Breef-Pilz while on a pit break at the recent Boston competition.  “A lot of computer programs are offered free of charge that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to use.”

The team’s mentor is MHS physics teacher James Carver-Brown.  Team sponsors include , Raytheon, and Invensys Process Systems (which also provide the office space where the team builds the robot).

According to its website, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)   is designed to encourage students ages 6 to 18 years old to pursue science and engineering, FIRST, works with mentors within business, education and government to make science as cool as sports. 

The site describes FIRST as a one-of-a-kind program for middle and high school students founded by Dean Kamen,  inventor of the Segway, the AutoSyringe, the first insulin pump, an all-terrain electric wheelchair known as the iBOT, and more.  

Through the program, high-school-aged participants are eligible to apply for more than $14 million in scholarships from leading colleges, universities, and corporations.