On November 18th, AIM Robotics – a highly successful robotics team created and run by Fieldston students – won the Inspire Award at their first qualifier. AIM Robotics recently partnered with Fieldston, making their win all the more meaningful. AIM, which consists of thirteen high schoolers, competes in the First Tech Challenge (FTC): a competition where students design, build and code a robot to take it to a set of competitions. FTC challenges their teamwork, resilience and creativity as they create a robot to navigate an annually new set of obstacles.
How does a group of high schoolers come together to create a machine capable of winning? AIM owes its success to multiple weekly meetings in many locations, including at Fieldston and a STEM center. According to Ellie Usdin (Form V), the manager of AIM, “everyone gets what they want out of the team from what they put in. The harder we work, the more successful we are.” Despite the hard work during their sessions, there is intense camaraderie between the teammates, frustration is always squashed by laughter and music. “We spend an ungodly amount of time together,” one of the members joked. AIM members energize each other, which is valuable when building while running on only 3 hours of sleep and a bowl of Cava.
AIM is in the process of incorporating itself into Fieldston, making robotics more accessible to Fieldston students. Now, Fieldston students can sign up for FTC-related clubs at the club fair, and Fieldston engineering teacher John Baglio advises AIM. Partnering with Fieldston is a way to ensure AIM’s longevity, and having a good robotics program available is invaluable, especially considering the success AIM has had at competitions.
For Usdin, winning the Inspire Award at the first competition was an unexpected victory. As she reflected on the experience, she said, smiling, “This is by far the best that we’ve done in the first competition of the year.” Ranked 10th out of over 130 teams in New York City by FTC Stats, a website providing information on every FTC team, AIM has experienced an abundance of success in the past. However, this is the best they have ever started a season; usually, it takes them some time to gain momentum. Usdin attributes AIM’s success this year to better planning, staying on track of progress and organizing their goals.
While much of AIM’s work is related to building the robot, it also focuses on outreach and community building. Dahlia Zemmel (Form V) runs weekly instructional sessions so AIM can spread their mechanical wisdom to the next generation. They have been in the process of connecting with one team from every state, a Herculean task made possible by social media. On the robot side, all mechanisms function, but there is still work left; they are currently redesigning so AIM can be as efficient as possible. AIM still has many challenges to overcome, but no matter what the other competitions bring, the team is looking forward to many more victories.
