The Mad Capper heads for Atlanta.
By: Kara Fitzpatrick
MONTGOMERY Three weeks ago, the Mad Capper was packed up and shipped off to Atlanta. He will emerge this week to assist 18 members of the Montgomery High School Robotics Team at the FIRST Robotics national championships in the Georgia capital.
FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, begins Thursday and ends Saturday.
FIRST competitions require teams of students to design, construct and test a robot for Montgomery, that robot’s name is the Mad Capper suited to accomplish a specific task. In Atlanta, hundreds of teams from across the nation and around the world will be part of the robot showdown.
This year’s task is a magnified version of tic-tac-toe, explained Bob Kazan, a member of the robotics team. The robot must place tetrahedrons on top of nine towers located on the playing floor, he said.
In March, the high school’s 50-member team won two awards at the FIRST Robotics Buckeye Regional competition in Cleveland the Xerox Creativity Award and the Regional Finalist Award. And just after the competition in Cleveland, conforming to FIRST regulations, the Mad Capper had to be packed up and sent to Atlanta. The team hasn’t seen it since.
But they’re hoping presumably, like all teams that the lack of time spent with their robot will not affect their performance.
"We’re hoping to do really well," Bob said. "We just got the division listings yesterday, so we can see all of the teams we’re playing against."
Vice Principal Chip Clymer said, "We’re very pleased with their performance considering they’re a second-year team. We’re looking forward to their presence in Atlanta for the national championships."
The team has gained additional recognition, receiving the Rookie Team of the Year award at the 2004 Trenton regional competition.
And in March, the team was one of five central New Jersey school districts chosen by Bristol-Myers Squibb to receive funding for its robotics team. Montgomery was awarded a $10,400 grant from the company.
In addition to Bristol-Myers Squibb, the district’s team is sponsored by NASA, Convatec and Cadcode Systems.

