On March 27, a team from the New Lebanon Jr/Sr High School competed in the General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) Engineer’s Week Competition in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The competition is attended by Berkshire county schools, as well as nearby New York schools including, Hudson, Chatham, and Berlin.
The team of Connor Feathers, Collin Goodrich, Martin Pedersen, Brandon Ross, and Usman Sadiq worked through the evening with poise and enthusiasm finishing second in the poster presentation (seen at right) and fourth overall in the operation phase. Their teacher Glenn Giumarra said his team outright dominated in the drag race. Fourteen teams attended the event and displayed some very creative and robust robots.
This year’s challenge demanded that students design, construct and program an autonomous robot using little more than a circuit board and a few DC motors. The device had to operate autonomously and fit within a one cubic foot space. The robot responded to sensor inputs and commands through C++ programming.
The competition consisted of four discreet elements:
- The robot had to haul a dozen golf balls over ten feet and return to the start point for additional balls.
The number of balls hauled in five minutes determined the score. - The bots had to negotiate a maze and were scored based on how far the device progressed.
- Each robot competed in a double elimination drag race over a distance of fifty feet.
- A poster board and interview/presentation compelled the teams to describe their strategies, struggles and vision for the project.
“I am very proud of our team and appreciate their dedication to the project,” Mr. Giumarra said. “We were fortunate to meet and collaborate with a robot enthusiast in Fred Warden. Fred visited our school three times to work with the group, including most of a Saturday. Fred attended the competition and was just as nervous and emotionally invested as the rest of us. Thank you Mrs. Dickson for connecting us with your father; his enthusiasm is contagious.”
