High school robotics teams gear up for a new season of 'FIRSTs'

Jan. 29—Franklin Regional Superintendent Gennaro Piraino wanted to know what junior Rory Messersmith considered to be more valuable to his academic future — being a member of the high school's robotics team, or studying for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.

"I'm not sure if I should answer that," Messersmith said with a chuckle before quickly adding. "I'd definitely say robotics."

Messersmith is president of FRobotics 4150, a student-led team that has been designing, building and programming robots to compete since 2012 at the FIRST Robotics Competition.

"FIRST" is an acronym of "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," created by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, who holds more than 1,000 U.S. and foreign patents.

The competition — in which students must design a robot to complete specific tasks as part of a new "game" every year — provides students the chance to solve real-world engineering challenges, work as a team, build leadership skills and teach others about the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, concepts they use in their work.

"We go through steps of brainstorming it, building it, wiring it and programming it," said sophomore and team Secretary James Sheridan. "And we learn a lot of useful skills that we can use in a variety of career paths."

In addition to Franklin Regional, other regional teams include the Titanium Titans, made up of students from a dozen South Hills-area schools, as well as the Girls of Steel, which includes female students from 20 districts throughout the Pittsburgh area. The Girls of Steel team in 2022 earned a spot in the FIRST Robotics World Championships in Houston.

Team members kicked off their season in early January, when they learned the details about this year's game, "Charged Up."

"There's a yellow cone and an inflatable cube, and we have to pick these up and put them on pegs and platforms," Sheridan said. "Then at the end, there's a teeter-totter we have to balance the robot on."

There are 37 members on this year's FRobotics team, a nearly even mix of 17 male and 20 female students.

During the competition, the team will assign two drivers, a coach and a fourth team member to take part in each round of competition. Everyone has their role to play in order to succeed.

"We use cardboard, wood and a little bit of metal to start prototyping ideas," Sheridan said. "At that point, some ideas make it and some don't. Once we settle on a design, we start building the robot, mostly out of aluminum."

With the opening of the district's "elementary campus" at the former Sloan Elementary site, the team also has been given the former Newlonsburg Elementary school cafeteria as a workspace.

Different team members are working on other aspects of the robot.

"While the build team is doing its thing, the wiring team is working on how to make the robot move and how to work the wiring into the design that the build team is using,"

Messersmith said.

Messersmith, Sheridan and team Vice President John Ciecierski brought last year's robot to the Jan. 23 school board meeting to demonstrate some of its abilities.

The team has secured sponsorships from the district, the FR Panther Foundation and local businesses such as MSA Safety, Argo AI and Arconic to help offset the roughly $5,000 annual cost of building the robot.

"In past years, we've had to take our robots apart to reuse parts, but it's great to have one like this to take around and show people," Sheridan said.

To that end, the team is soliciting donations of items such as used computers, tools and aluminum. Physical and financial donations can be arranged through the team's website, FRobotics4150.org or by emailing froboticsteam4150@gmail.com.

Ciecierski said he's looking forward to the annual competitions.

"The fun part is at the end of the year, going to events and competing in what are basically robot sports."

For more, see FRobotics4150.org.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .