Gearing up

Manville High School’s Robotics Team prepares for March 2 event in Trenton.

By: Donna Lukiw
   The Manville High School Robotics Team is connecting wires, screwing in nuts and bolts and testing the circuits as students prepare for the season’s first competition on March 2 at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton.
   Although the team struggled to raise enough money for the competition this year, National Starch, ADP, Manville Elks and the Manville Education Foundation donated enough money for the team to buy parts and register for the competition.
   This year, the team has to build a robot that will take plastic tubes and place them on a rack in order to collect the most tubes on the rack and win.
   "Rack n’ Roll," this year’s game, has the teams hang pool tubes on a rack with 24 hooks ranging from 2.5 feet to 7.5 feet off the ground and arranged in three circular rows of eight hooks.
   The more consecutive tubes a team hangs, the higher the score.
   "Thanks to the advice of our volunteer engineer-mentor, Mike Bird, we have a much nicer control panel and better designed robot than any of our previous attempts," robotics adviser Bruce Reisman said. "The students built a prototype chassis between seasons and liked the design so much that we’ve implemented it for this year’s robot."
   "I hope we win and that we’re going to have fun and be a success," team member Dominika Lastovickova said.
   The team is using an aluminum honeycomb as a wing to fold down making a ramp and an arm to lift the tubes.
   "It’s a very strong robot and maneuverable," Mr. Reisman said.
   They’re calling the robot "Ipu," which Mr. Reisman said is an inside joke between the team members. Ipu stands for "invisible pink unicorn," he said. The students chose the name because the team’s color is pink and the unicorn is similar to the school’s mascot, the Mustang, he said.
   If the Manville High School Robotics Team does well in the regional competition it will need to go to Atlanta for championships, but the students are focused on next week’s event first.
   "The objective is to compete effectively, have fun and cross the next bridge when we come to it," Mr. Reisman said.
   Ten Manville High School students will be competing in Trenton including Kim Chacon, Megan Gizzi, Kate Horodetsky, Dominika Lastovickova, Nick Pillsbury, Tim Santoro, Andrew Saultz, Emils Stopins, Bob Teodorczy and Brittany Wildgoose.