Framingham High, WalshBots Take Top Honors at Robotics Competition

WORCESTER, MA - Thirty-one middle schools and 79 high schools from around the state competed for Regional Qualifying spots for VEX Robotics Competition Nothing But Net at Quinsigamond Community College, over the weekend.

The teams of Framingham, both Walsh Middle School and Framingham High School, led in performance in various aspects of the February 13 competition.

Both schools were awarded spots in the Regional events in Worcester on February 28 for Middle School and March 5 and 6 for High School.

The action-packed day required middle and high school students to execute the VEX Robotics Competition game Nothing But Net, which is played by scoring colored balls in high and low goals and by elevating the robot in a designated climbing zone. 

Framingham High School #9421 along with Blackstone Valley Regional Technical HS (teams 6916C and 6916D) were members of the winning alliance for the High School Division earning the title of Tournament Champions.

9421 is made up of Framingham High seniors Eric Bornstein and Evan Chansky and Sophomore Joey Wolpert. Bornstein and Chansky are among the founding members of Framingham High Robotics and Wolpert is one of the founders of Walsh MS Robotics.

Quinsigamond Community College Professor Betty Lauer said “Walsh Middle School dominated the Middle School Division winning 4 out of the 9 awards given. This includes the Tournament Finalists alliance win by team #9791C. But even more distinguishable, the same team #9791C won the coveted Excellence Award, the competition’s highest honor, and the Design Award. Walsh Middle School team #9791E won the Programming Skills challenge.”

Walsh Middle School teams are known as the WalshBots.

Team #9791C - Revolution is comprised of Connor Flynn (7th grade), Ryan Memmott (7th grade), Nicholas Tessitore (7th grade), Brendan Qi (8th grade) and Liam Neal Reilly (8th grade). Team #9791E - Espanol is comprised of Sam Moffat (7th grade), Emmett Bernstein (7th grade), Erik Glazier (7th grade), and Arjun Ramachandrula (8th grade).

To prepare for the competition, these teams worked together to design and build a robot using VEX EDR, that could quickly and efficiently solve specific obstacles and challenges that come with playing the game Nothing But Net.

WalshBot 9791C – Revolution developed a clever solution for lifting their alliance partner’s robot safely in the last 30 seconds of a match to score a bonus 50 points. The mechanism employed a platform for the partner robot to drive onto, and then Revolution’s robot would tilt onto its side lifting the partner robot into the air. The team developed this solution over a period of three months, Saturday was their first opportunity to showcase their solution in competition. The team built prototypes to test this approach. Until this event, no other Massachusetts middle school team had ever attempted elevating another robot in competition.

Many were skeptic that the solution would work reliably.

“When I was scouting the other teams and telling them about the lift, the kids where in awe. However, when the mentors heard some accepted the idea, but others got very paranoid and afraid,” said Revolution team member Nicholas Tesitore.

However, the overall sentiment from other teams was this solution would work.

“When we scouted the teams and asked to modify the bottom of the robot the teams were always open to our ideas and let us modify there robot so that they could be lifted,” said Revolution team member Ryan Memmott.

For the team, the day was an overwhelming success.

“Our main goal was to test out our lift. We didn’t expect to do so well or for our lift to work as much as it did. We had great time and hope to do well in Regional Championships,” said Revolution team member Liam Neal Reilly.

Club advisor, Pascal Chesnais, said “Walsh Robotics Club has a highly motivated group of students that are highly regarded in the region’s VEX Robotics Competition community. At every competition, they demonstrate high quality engineering solutions. They not only collaborate well amongst themselves, but they share their know how with other teams in the region. I am extremely proud of all our teams’ accomplishments. This second Excellence Award this season serves to confirm that Walsh has a high quality robotics program.”

The team’s next competition is the Southern New England Regional Championships.

For Middle School teams the Championships will be held Sunday February 28 at North High School in Worcester. For High School, the Championships will be held March 5 and 6 at QCC in Worcester.

Prof. Lauer said “These two Framingham schools have participated in the World-wide VEX Robotics Competition since 2012 and have represented the state of Massachusetts in the VEX Robotics World Championship for both years.”

Saturday’s Nothing But Net Qualifying Tournament is one of a series of VEX Robotics Competitions taking place internationally throughout the year.

The VEX Robotics Competition is the world’s fastest growing competitive robotics program for middle schools, high schools and colleges around the world, with more than 12,000 teams from 33 countries that participate in more than 1,000 VEX Robotics Competition events worldwide. The competition season culminates each Spring, with the laudable VEX Robotics Competition World Championship event, uniting top qualifying teams from local, state, regional and international VEX Robotics Competitions.