Since the fall semester, the robotics team, headed by Brooklyn Cohen ‘14, has been hard at work designing and building a robot for competition. The robotics team, also known as The Muses, meets in Mr. Fischman’s room and is aided by Ms. Sonderleiter and Ms. Reese. Its twelve members either participate through an independent study or club membership.

Before construction begins, the robotics team watches a game video and comes up with a rough design that will give them the best opportunity to win.  However, this design is subject to change during construction.

Every year the game task changes, which means the team has to build a new robot to perform the new assignment. This year, the team had to remove plastic rings off pegs and hang them on different sets of pegs that varied in height. To get extra points, the team’s robot had to lift the other robots. The Muses get help from mentors including independent engineers or JPL engineers.

Cohen says, “Competitions are a lot of fun. There are a bunch of teams competing and they’re all really enthusiastic and dress up in crazy outfits and uniforms. [We wear] suits, suspenders and bow-ties, panthelopes (some animal that looks like an antelope) and neon colors.” The team has competed in two events this year—one in mid December and the other in late January.

Brooklyn’s favorite part of being on the team is, “designing, building, and wiring.” She also likes “being able to teach the newer members of the team how to do things like using the tools.” She says the robotics team is a time consuming but rewarding experience.