This past Tuesday, February 23,Hingham High School’s robotics team formally concluded their build season. The team, the Hammerheads, competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition, or FRC. Teams compete in an arena-¬style field, and must design a robot to complete a certain task, which changes from year to year.

The Team
The HHS Hammerheads were founded 3 years ago by an interested group of students. Over the past three years, the team has won several titles, including one division championship. The current captains are seniors Paul Barber and Billy Harrington. Other leaders on the team take the form of mentors, teachers and other adults who donate their time to teach students skills which can be used in the build season and competitions. Mentors include HHS’ Garry Forrester, Paula Flanagan, and former student Thomas Gorman. Students themselves compose the bulk of the team, of which I myself am a part. We met regularly every day from mid-¬January, when the build season began, up until the last day, February 23. Meetings usually lasted from after school to 6 pm on weekdays, with much longer hours on weekends. Over the course of the season, students learned new skills from each other. Freshman Lindsey Vogelmann recalls how, “I learned soldering and coding. The first time I ever soldered I burned my hand, but it was still a great experience!” The robotics team will compete in two tournament-¬style events in mid-¬March. The events are March 18-¬20 at University of Massachusett, Dartmouth and March 30¬-April 3 at Boston University.

The Game
This year’s FRC competition is FIRST Stronghold. This a medieval¬-themed game where teams compete in alliances consisting of 3 robots. The field is designed like a battlefield, with modular defenses in the mid¬field and two towers on either end. Defenses, which are partially picked by the team and partially voted on by the audience, include such objects as a faux moat, portcullis, rock wall, and several other gates and ramps. Teams get points by crossing over these defenses, effectively wearing them down. Also present are boulders, which are really dodgeballs, which teams can pick up via their robots and lob into the tower for more points. Due to the wide array of options, teams specialize their robots in order to score the most points possible. For example, our team’s robot has the capability to crawl over obstacles and under low bars. It can also fire boulders, with reasonable accuracy, into the towers. Penalties are given for various reasons, and robots must be within certain parameters, namely a 120 pound weight limit and 120 inch perimeter. The FIRST Robotics Competition is a fascinating combination of brain and brawn. If you are interested in attending, the events are open to the public and I would highly recommend you show up!

Our team has put a great deal of time and effort into our robot, and your support would be greatly valued.