The Abbey Botball Robotics Team competed in the New England regional Botball tournament on Saturday, April 30.
Botball is a very challenging program that requires teams to build two separate, fully autonomous robots that work simultaneously to perform activities on a defined course layout to collect team points. While the program has existed nationally for many years, this is just the third year that Portsmouth Abbey has been involved.
Portsmouth Abbey's team competed in 2015 for points for the first time and were able to finish 13th out of 18 participants in the New York regional tournament. This year, the Ravens competed in the New England regional competition, held at the Engineering School at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, where the team improved its placing to eighth out of a field of 19 very competitive entries.
"The quality of our effort was, unfortunately, not reflected in the final outcome," said robotics faculty advisor Mr. David Wilson. "Our practice rounds were among the top three or four entries, but technical difficulties led us to fall in the standings once the competition began. However, the team left Lowell with great determination to improve our results for next year.
"I would like to recognize the major participants on our team who contributed to the success of this year's effort: Sixth Formers Max Bogan, Jerry Lin and George Sturges; and Fifth Formers Nick Velcea, Oliver Ferry and Meaghan Kelly."
Kudos to the entire robotics team and Mr. Wilson!
View a video of the Abbey Botball Robotics Team at the New England Tournament.