On Apr. 18, WJ’s Robotics team placed third at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Botball Regionals. Additionally, they earned the Judges’ Choice Award for Excellence in Engineering.

This means that they will be attending the Global Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. this summer.

“We usually are one of the top teams in the region, so I can’t say I wasn’t expecting to make it this far,” said Ari Mendelson, a junior on the robotics team.

Technology Education teacher and team sponsor George Lavelle agrees, saying that the team has made it this far in years past. In 2007, the team won first place in the Global Championships.

He said that robotics requires some extra technical knowledge besides what is taught in the Foundations of Tech class, which he teaches.

“[They] use not only the skills they learn from school, but also some more computer programming and trouble-shooting skills,” said Lavelle.

At a typical robotics competition, teams are made to build a robot under a time limit. Then, they must have the robot independently perform simple tasks, such as picking small objects up, in front of judges. The robots that perform most impressively score the most points.

Mendelson believes that the team can win the championships this summer, with a little hard work.

“Other teams have a lot more people and time than us to work on perfecting their robots and strategies, but it is certainly possible for us to overcome these challenges,” said Mendelson.

The robotics team meets every day at lunch in room 211 from January to March/April.