Montclair students competing in worldwide robotics championship

• The Montclair High School Robotics Team will compete in the FIRST Robotics Championship.

Robots will invade Detroit next week.

Actually, the situation won't be quite as dire as suggested, as plenty of them will really be at two locations in the Motor City for the FIRST Robotics Competition. 

And one of the robots in the competition belongs to the Montclair High School Robotics Team. This robot was shipped out recently to Michigan to be there when the students arrive.

After winning a spot in a lottery, the team of MHS 30 students will participate in the event, which starts next Wednesday, April 25, and runs until Saturday, April 28.

They are one of 384 teams worldwide that will be participating in this championship, run by the organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). 

The MHS team is one of 15 coming from New Jersey. Some of these teams they have competed against at events like a recent one in Montgomery Township, where team members earned an award for "Gracious Professionalism," along with their lottery spot.

In Detroit, teams will operate robots that they built weighing up to 150 pounds that handle certain tasks. A group of three teams forms an "alliance" that squares off against another trio of teams.

This year's competition will have robots moving around milk crates on a field to score points while complying with an old-school video theme. Alliances will compete against each other in matches in elimination brackets until there are only six left that will make it to the finals.

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MHS senior Rafi Baum, the team's captain, and junior Tien Servidio are among the veteran members of the team.

Servidio told The Montclair Times and NorthJersey.com that she and her teammates look forward to participating in the tournament.

"We get really excited around competition time. We only go to a few in the year. It's not like it's an athletic sport," said Servidio. "Competitions are always full of energy, and of course, robots."

Baum said he and his colleagues enjoy overnight competitions like the upcoming one.

However, he admitted that the odds for the MHS team, also known as Team 555 when they compete in the spring in local and regional competitions, will not be in their favor in Detroit.

"There is a lot of really impressive teams that go to this event. Teams have a lot more industrial backing than we do, teams that get support from Google, NASA, and Johnson & Johnson," Baum said.

What will be important is what they take away from competing, observed Baum.

"It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to learn a lot because there's going to be a lot of great robots there," Baum said. "A big part of this robotics competition is learning from other teams and seeing what other teams do, and becoming a better team based on that."

Also exciting for the team going to the championship is coach and mentor Rich Kopelow, one of several parents who will be chaperoning the team during the competition.

"It's great news, the kids are really excited, and they have been working as hard as they can for it," Kopelow said. "They are really psyched."

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com