Area robotics team, 5356 Team TARDIS, travels to Texas for FIRST World Championship

Corning-Painted Post senior Graham Simons called 5356 Team TARDIS winning the overall Inspire Award at the Excelsior Regional Championships in March a culmination of the whole season.

That win at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica set the stage for further success, and much more travel.

5356 Team TARDIS, a 14-member team with students from C-PP, Horseheads and a home school, will take part in the FIRST World Championship April 17-20 in Houston, Texas.

Simons said 5356 Team TARDIS, sponsored by Corning Inc., will be one of 224 teams from across the world competing in the FIRST World Championship.

“It will be a very unique opportunity to compete with teams from every state as well as internationally,” Simons said. “I believe 60-70% of the teams are from the U.S. but there are also plenty of international teams completing.”

A team from Ballston Spa, 6955 RoBovines, and another from Mamaroneck, 14903 Sharkbots, will also represent Upstate New York in the FIRST World Championship, said TARDIS team coach Michael Simons. The event will include teams from more than 20 countries.

“I’ve been on the team for four years,” said Michael McNaughton, a C-PP senior. “This was a special year for us, especially for me being a senior. It feels good making it to the world championship. We've been working at it for four years now. I’m thrilled. It’s been a lot of work, and it feels good to have it pay off.”

Tristan Lint, a junior at C-PP, said this year has been great because in comparison to his freshman and sophomore years he feels the team has focused a lot more on organization and getting things done more efficiently.

“We did a lot more planning and thinking before we did anything,” Lint said. “I’m happy with where we have come to going to Houston, Texas to the world championship.”

Lint said he is also grateful to all the team sponsors.

“We raised a lot of money. The community has been huge supporting us,” Lint said. “We’ve always done volunteering and helping out the community and they have kind of returned the favor. We have raised $16,000 for our trip.”

Road to Texas included several other competitions

Simons said 5356 Team TARDIS started the season in December 2023 winning a qualifier robotics competition Inspire Award, defeating 18 other teams in Manchester, N.Y.

TARDIS also competed in two other qualifiers and later hosted a qualifier event at the C-PP High School gymnasium.

On March 3, TARDIS took part in the robotics regional competition, which included teams from throughout New York State, except for New York City and Long Island.

“We competed with teams from across the state and did well in our judging as well as in the robot game,” Simons said. “We worked together well and ended up winning the overall Inspire Award. We did a lot of work for this.”

About the robotics competition

The qualification matches last for two minutes. The first 30 seconds the robots are all preprogrammed and then the last minute-and-a-half is called the autonomous period, and the driver controls the robot.

“We have video game controllers that we use to drive the robot around,” Simons said. “The field has four teams with two alliances. You're paired with the team and then you're going against another pair of teams you're trying to beat.”

Simons said there are different awards that a team can win throughout the season.

“It's about far more than just robots throughout the season,” Simon said. “We also work to do outreach with elementary schools. That's one of our big programs.”

Simons said 5356 Team TARDIS has gone to all the Corning-Painted Post elementary schools and full school assemblies where the students have gotten chances to drive through a robot design activity sharing STEM learning.

“You get judged on both your innovations on the robot and the control systems,” Simons said. “It's robot centric, but then also half of the competition is all about your outreach and how you've reached out to students in the community. You're bringing new people into the program.”

Outreach with students brings in new member

Simons said 5356 Team TARDIS held an outreach event at Wings of Eagles in September that was attended by Eavan Qin, a ninth-grade student at Corning-Pained Post School District who later joined the team.

“She has been incredibly useful ever since,” Simon said.

Qin said she is interested in robotics, programing and doing outreach work.

“Our team is very supportive,” Qin said. “I’m always learning new things from our senior members. They have taught me a lot.”

More: Schools across New York are losing students. What's happening in Elmira area schools?

Harpursville Robotics Team heading to VEX Robotics World Championships

Meanwhile in the Binghamton area, the Harpursville Robotics Team, the RoboHornets, will also be heading to the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas on April 28, where they will compete at the middle-school level with other 14-year-old teams.

The RoboHornets, who placed first in the qualification round and won the Excellence Award in the semifinals of the Northern New York State VRC Over Under Championship March 9 at Queensbury High School, are comprised of ninth-grade students Liem Donahue, Alex Afify, Jacob Rueffer, and Glenn Miller.

This will be the team's third time competing in the VEX Robotics World Championships.

This article originally appeared on The Leader: Southern Tier robotics teams aim for world championships in Texas