Events
Ironmen Robotics Recognition Dinner 2019
 Mentors: Free Robotics team member: $20.00 Kids ages 3–11: $20.00 Parents/siblings/friends: $40.00 Attire for the evening should be neat dress casual (no jeans, shorts, sneakers or sweats please.) Team members are asked to bring their robotics t-shirts to wear for a team picture.  We are fortunate to have a group of dedicated mentors who generously donate their time to our teams. The Recognition Dinner is a wonderful opportunity to thank them and show our appreciation. We are asking each family to contribute towards a gift for our mentors. Kindly include donations (suggested minimum $20) with reservations payment. If you will be attending please book online below no later than April 22nd. If there are any question, don’t hesitate to reach out. Thank you in advance for your prompt response.
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Varsity WIns Montgomery FRC!
Congratulations to the Ironmen Varsity Robotics team for being a member of the winning alliance at the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Event held at Montgomery High School in Skillman, New Jersey, and earning a winner banner and trophy. (FRC teams always compete in groups of three called alliances). The Ironmen started off the competition slowly, finishing in 17th place out of 37 teams in the preliminary rounds. But during those rounds they showed excellence in capturing and scoring game pieces, which was precisely the capability that the top two teams were looking for to balance out the top-seeded alliance with two offensive robots and one defensive robot. This alliance was a juggernaut, and won each of its three elimination rounds by a score of 2-0. The Ironmen improved upon their performance at this competition from last year, when they were a member of the finalist (second place) alliance. The win qualifies the Ironmen for the FIRST Mid Atlantic District Championship at Lehigh University, April 3-5. FRC is the large robot division of FIRST where robots can weigh up to 125 pounds and are built by team members after school. Don Bosco Prep also sponsors FIRST Tech Challenge team for students in the senior robotics class where robots can weigh up to 45 pounds, as well as FIRST LEGO League teams in conjunction with local middle schools to get younger students interested in robotics and engineering. With a cheering section like this victory was inevitable!  Team members pictured (l to r): Fr. Lou Konopelski - head mentor, Mr. Jim Feehan – mentor, Justin Orriols, Brent Mastromarino, Ms. Sarah Lucinese – mentor, Mr. Michael Tan – mentor, Aidan Bele, Michael Kourkoulakos, Robert Plastina, Patrick Murphy, Vincent Massa, Colin Leitgeb, James Feehan, Joseph Alcide, Christopher Vella, Ethan Joseph, Niall Moloney, Nicholas Arteaga, Michael Maher, Mr. Richard Mooney – mentor and Mr. Jim Kourkoulakos – mentor. Not in Photo - Ian Hamilton  |
Bridgewater 2019 FRC
Although ranking are not the most important thing, they are a thing. I was a little disappointed that JV will likely finish among the bottom ten teams in the district. JV finished 5 – 7 after the qualification matches and in 27th place. . However, the most important thing is that we, both students and mentors, learn from our mistakes and not fall into the same mistakes in the future. We had a jest award last year at our recognition dinner, the “ninth time is a charm award”. The JV team gives the students to make mistakes and learn from them before they join the varsity team.
As I stated previously, the basic problem with JV is that the robot was simplified to do two thing: climb and score hatch panels, and it was not good at either one. Even a good performance in playing defense could not offset these weaknesses. At some point in the future we will examine why the robot performed so poorly.
After this week, JV will likely be “off”, that is, not have to come to any meetings until the varsity season is complete. Students should decide which technology team (mechanical, electrical, pneumatics and programming) they would like to join next year. Freshmen will also have a competition to see who the driver and operator will be next year. More info will be forthcoming after the varsity season.
Varsity finished 7 – 5 after the qualification matches and in 16th place. We were selected by the 8th alliance and came very close to beating the 1st alliance. Unfortunately, close does not result in district points. We are now about the 78th team in the district, and have to rise to about 58th place to qualify for the district championship. This means that making it to the finals at Montgomery will be enough to qualify for the district championship, making it to the semi-finals will be 50-50, and not making it past the quarterfinals will mean no district championship. |
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