Huntington Robotics Officially Kicks Off Season

Huntington High School’s robotics team is ready for the build season after officially kicking off the campaign on Saturday, January 6 from 12-2 p.m. in the auditorium.

The Blue Devil squad is led by team captain Jaipreet Singh, vice-captain Oliver Gerberg, chief business officer Jordana Boxer and chief technical officer Wynne Franciscovich. Omar Santiago serves as the organization’s faculty advisor.

This marks the program’s eleventh season. It was founded in September 2013 and has captured an assortment of awards at regional competitions and repeatedly qualified for the FIRST Robotics world championships.

Officially known as FIRST Team 5016, Huntington Robotics maintains a website at www.team5016.com. The site contains information about the program and photos of past highlights.

Huntington Robotics Team 5016 was created with a goal to educate students in the Huntington community with practical STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) learning techniques, while incorporating real-world business aspects of modern corporations.

Huntington Robotics hosted a successful fundraiser at the American Legion Hall in Halesite in December. School officials and members of the local LEGO League team, the Dragon Racers joined high school teams members and their families at the event.

During the fundraising event, the four club officers made a presentation detailing what robotics is all about; the team’s past achievements and the club’s plans for the upcoming season.

By the end of the night, more than $6,000 had been raised, including a check from the Rotary Club of Huntington. Gellerman Orthodontics also made a generous contribution.

Last Saturday, FIRST Robotics released details of this year’s competition across the world. This year’s game is called “Reefscape.” In it, a robot must be able to place PVC pipes onto rungs of different heights, move kickballs across the game field and pull itself off the group using a swinging metal cage.

In celebration of the start of the season the Huntington School Board members and district officials along with team alumni, mentors and students from around the district to the high school to watch the worldwide reveal video and to begin brainstorming ideas for this year’s robot.

“Over the next six weeks the robotics team will be working on designing, building, programming and testing their robot in preparation for their competitions in March,” Ms. Boxer said. “Everyone on the team can't wait to begin the build process and are excited to see what this season has in store for them.”