The Danbury High School robotics team hosted its fifth annual robotics competition on Nov. 10, and 38 teams from across the state competed in the all-day event. The 47 members of Danbury’s team 5150 participated with six robots hoping to qualify for the Southern New England Regionals next March.
This is the second competition of the season, and 5150 has already earned three awards. On Saturday, team 5150J was presented the Judge’s Award, which acknowledges positive attitudes and work ethic observed by judges, volunteers and referees. Additionally, team 5150D won the Design Award for the Best Engineering Notebook.
“It’s really interesting to work with a team and learn from them. At the end of the day, we are all a big team and everybody’s working with each other. We try to get everybody to help out with each robot at least once,” says Molly Mead, DHS junior and 5150G team member.
Teams coming into the building at 7 a.m. were greeted by the smell of bacon, as the Hatter's Cafe served its full breakfast menu. In addition to breakfast, the DHS Culinary Arts Program students, under the direction of Chef Brian Turner, served lunch to more than 400 students, parents, and volunteers.
The DHS robotic teams are comprised of at least six students who are given control of the process of creating the robots. The learning style allows them to learn from each other as they are encouraged to help one another without a lot of input from advisors. They are given the opportunity to develop the robots by themselves and dedicate their time to perfecting the robots.
“Everything that makes a good robot, they are working on,” says Erik Savoyski, Team Advisor for 5150.
The next robotics competition is Dec. 1 at Masuk High School in Monroe.