To the editor
In 1992, Dean Kamen founded an organization called First, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. The purpose of First is to get middle school and high school students involved in science and technology.
FIRST organizes robotics competitions every year in which students and engineers from sponsoring companies have to design and build a robot that performs certain tasks in order to compete competitively. Hillsborough High School’s Roboraiders is one of the many 600+ teams that is involved with FIRST.
Since 1995 when the Roboraiders team was founded, it has evolved and grown. The Roboraiders group is the best in years because of its involvement in the community, its great teamwork with the group of engineers from Johnson and Johnson, and its great designs for the robot.
This year the Roboraiders spent many hours attending community events to demonstrate the robot, spread the benefits of technology, and get the youth of our nation more involved in science and technology. The team participated in the Hunterdon County 4-H Fair, demonstrating the robot and trying to spread First to some of the schools in the area. The team also participated in the Super Science Weekend at the New Jersey State Museum. The Roboraiders also participated in other events that have helped inspire and develop our future leaders.
The group of engineers from J&J are a great factor in the team’s success over the years. The engineers are skilled with problem solving, great designers and builders, and most important of all, great mentors. When working with the engineers, the students get to experience everything that is involved with designing and building a device.
When you see the parts you’re given and know what you want the robot to be like when you’re done building it, you wonder about what needs to be done to get the job accomplished.
This curiosity gets you involved with the engineers in order to find out what the steps are to get to a final product. Then the engineers show you all the things they can do with the software, machinery, and electrical equipment they have and the kinds of things they do for their everyday jobs. Everything the engineers have taught the students and how well they work together is what makes the team the best in years.
What makes the Roboraiders the best in years is the great designs for the robot. This past year the team has had many prepossessing designs. After the designs were made into parts and then the parts were assembled together, the final product turned out to do everything we wanted it to do and did it better than we expected it to. Only minor changes to the original design were needed before the robot was ready for competition.
The teams community involvement, great teamwork, and great designs have helped lead Team Roboraiders to victory. The Roboraiders won first place at the Mid-Atlantic Regional at Rutgers, and third place at the national competition in Orlando, Fla.
Hillsborough High School