Carmel Catholic Robotics Teams Advance to State Championship Tournament
Mundelein-based Not Your Average Nerds (NYAN) Robotics recently competed in the Northern Illinois League Championship, making it to the finals and earning a place at the Illinois State Robotics Competition in Elgin on February 24-25, 2017.
NYAN is a second year team competing in the FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC). The team is sponsored by Carmel Catholic High School as well as several local businesses. Carmel Catholic has NYAN as their varsity team, and has Corsair-bot as their junior varsity team; both teams are advancing to state.
Teams design, build, program, and test a robot to prepare for competition. During this process, the team learns important skills based in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Going into the finals, NYAN was undefeated in all of their matches. Making it to the championship match and receiving the Rockwell Collins Innovation award have them progressing to the state championship. They enter this competition as the number one team in the Northern Illinois Division and the number one team in Illinois. A directory of NYAN's team members, coaches, and activities can be found at www.nyanrobotics.com.
NYAN's mission is to not only enhance their own STEM skills but to also foster an interest in robotics within the community and at their school. This season, NYAN hosted or participated in many community-based outreach programs and workshops, inspiring youth with their BB-8, their Thor Hammer, and their robot. They also promote themselves, Carmel Catholic and its activities, STEM, robotics, and FIRST® on its website.
"It's so exciting to advance to state this year," says Kevin Coda '17, captain of the NYAN team. "It's a great opportunity with this new team, now for the first time in our high school. We are so grateful that Carmel Catholic is supporting NYAN this year as their varsity robotics team, and we are ecstatic that we are an integral part of the stout STEM program they are building."
NYAN's robot (affectionately named F.R.I.D.A.Y.) is designed to move agilely and quickly around a field littered with debris, picking up and launching wiffle balls into hoops, autonomously sensing and manipulating beacons, and ultimately lifting a full size exercise ball into a hoop four feet off the ground, all while three other robots are on the field trying to do the same thing. The functionality and design of NYAN's robot, along with the documentation of the robot's development and the team's work throughout its season, earned the team the Rockwell Collins Innovation award.
The team is hoping to apply what they have learned throughout the season to perform well at the Illinois State Championship Competition on February 25 at Elgin Community College, Elgin, Ill. The championship competition is free and open to the public. If you do plan to attend, please remember to wear closed-toed shoes and bring along a pair of safety glasses so that you can visit the pit area to meet the robots and the students who built them. Learn more at http://www.firstillinoisrobotics.org/ftc/.
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About Carmel Catholic High School
Carmel Catholic High School is a Catholic, college preparatory and secondary school for young men and women in grades 9 through 12. Carmel Catholic provides a quality Catholic education and is committed to meeting the academic, physical, social and spiritual needs of the students it serves. Carmel Catholic is jointly sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) and the Order of Carmelites (O.Carm). Carmel Catholic is a four-time recipient of the prestigious Blue Ribbon School award by the U.S. Department of Education. The school enrolls approximately 1,300 students each year.