WOODBURY — Everyone loves a story of an underdog getting the spotlight, but most don’t know the background behind their success.
This applies to the Nonnewaug Robotics Team, who are short-staffed and not well-known, that recently excelled at the state level Feb. 22.
“We qualified for the Connecticut State Championships for Robotics, and there are six teams chosen to be the captains of alliances,” robotics advisor William Pease said. “We were the sixth team chosen for that, and we chose a partner, and we competed for possibly winning the event.”
Despite not winning, competing in a state championship is a feat in itself.
“We didn’t go much farther than that,” Pease continues, “but out of 30 teams, to be among those top six is pretty cool, and we’re currently on the waiting list for the the New England Premier Championship event.”
Junior Luciano Pedros, a Nonnewaug Robotics Team member, talks about the inner workings of the team.
“We do a lot of building on the robot, a lot of programming, and we have to have a good team dynamic,” Pedros said. “We have some people split up the tasks and work on separate things so you don’t put too much energy into one thing at a time.”
Although the team is lacking members, Pedros has been a committed part of the robotics team since the start of high school.
“I started my freshman year, and I joined because I was just interested in going into engineering,” Pedros continues. “I wanted something related to that that I could do in school. Now we’re mostly juniors, and we need to get some new freshmen now next year.”
With a need of incoming members, Pease describes some incentives besides reaching the state level.
“There are a lot of scholarships for the kids on the team,” Pease said. “Some of which are competitive scholarships, but some of which are just because you were on a team, you get x-amount thousands of dollars just lopped off the possible tuition charge. It’s a great opportunity to learn about engineering, potentially get some scholarships and stuff, and we have a lot of fun.”
Pedros agrees with Pease’s description.
“It’s a really fun activity to do, especially if you’re interested in engineering with some other technical career like that,” Pedros said. “It’s something fun to do in the school, and winning at a state level is a plus. I guess if you see that the team is doing good, and you might want to join for next year.”
Despite having “actually won the state championship four years ago,” Pease shares Pedros’ hopes of more recognition for the team.
“It seems like it should help,” Pease said, “but I guess we have to do more promotion in other ways. Nonetheless, robotics is a good opportunity for students, and it pays off. The team has built a very capable robot this year, anything could happen.”
