The Yonkers Middle-High School robotics teams recently competed in the robotics championship event in Houston against teams from all over the world.
Founded in 2014, The Mechadogs participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition–a national non-profit science and technology program. This STEM-based program challenges students to work as a team to build industrial-sized robots. These robots then face-off against each other in organized competitions. To date, the Mechadogs have competed in 14 such competitions and won 12 awards.
The Mechadogs recently participated in the The New York & Hudson Valley Regional competition. The team’s robot named, “Scrappy-Doo,” got the playful moniker by being built from salvaged parts from previous years’ robots. But, these recycled parts produced a champion. The Mechadogs came out on top of 50 teams from schools all over the New York Metro area; sending them to the national competition in Houston, Texas.
As co-captain I feel an overwhelming sense of pride and joy for our team as a whole for accomplishing such a feat. As someone who joined the Mechadogs four years ago, I feel elated that I can finally experience something of this caliber.
Asenath Jacob – Co-Captain of the Mechadogs
There are currently 27 members of The Mechadogs. Almost all, 24 in total, traveled to the competition accompanied by three parents, three adult mentors, and three Mechadogs alumni. This was made possible thanks to the $13,235 that 86 GoFundMe donors contributed, as well as the contribution of our sponsors: Gene HAAS Foundation, Yonkers Middle-High School, Schnorbus Family, and NYC FIRST.
The championship kicked-off on April 19th and lasted four days, ending on the 22nd. The events consisted of eight divisions separating the 600 teams who traveled to Houston from all over the world. Through a further series of sub-divided matches, “alliances” of four teams are built and points are earned for each team. The teams then climb to division championships before battling it out in double-elimination matches amongst the division champs. The last alliance standing is crowned the FIRST World Championship Winner.
The Mechadogs were grouped into the “Hopper Division” with 75 other teams. They competed in ten matches in total and finished with a record of 1-9.
As a sendoff to the senior members of the team who are set to graduate this year, they all drove and operated the beloved robot, Scrappy-Doo. And then much like how a sports team would sign a trophy, all of the members signed the competition robot to commemorate their hard-work and experience throughout the year.
We came away from championships as more of a team and family than ever before.
The Mechadogs now enter the offseason until September. However, they won’t have much rest. Many on the team are participating in STEM Nights at the Riverfront Library until June. There, they will be mentoring other students grades 4-8 with the same hand-on technical skills that brought them to this year’s championships.
Congratulations to this year’s Mechadogs team on their performance at the FIRST Robotics Championships! And best of luck to the YMHS’s future teams that will be following in their footsteps.
