Pictured from left Holland Patent mentor Elizabeth Vanderhoef, Meral Evke, Tori Love, Dakota Baber, Jarod Bialek, Maysara Elazzazi, SUNYIT mentor Justin Melnitsky, Andrew Nerber, SUNYIT mentor Ben Weiss. Not pictured: David Nopany, Nick Finn, Nick Kopyt, SUNYIT mentor Dominick Ferone, Amanda Milone, SUNYIT faculty member Yu Zhou, New Hartford mentor Gary VonDauber.
Holland Patent, New Hartford students advance to international event
(New Hartford, Holland Patent, NY – March 2014) The Mohawk Valley’s inaugural FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) team, with 10 members from Holland Patent and New Hartford school districts, won two awards at the Tech Valley Regional FRC Championship Tournament March 13-15, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.
Co-sponsored by SUNYIT and Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES, FRC Team #5030, “The Second Mouse,” won the Rookie All Star Award, which qualifies members to compete at next month’s FIRST World Festival in St. Louis, and the Highest Rookie Seed Award, for achieving the second seed in the qualifying rounds.
Team members are: Nicholas Finn and Amanda Milone of Holland Patent High School; and Dakota Baber, Jarod Bialek, Maysara Elazzazi, Meral Evke, Nick Kopyt, Tori Love, Andrew Nerber and David Nopany of New Hartford.
The team is mentored by three SUNYIT freshmen, Ben Weiss, Dominick Ferone, and Justin Melnitsky, assisted by Ian Berringer, a Rochester Institute of Technology student. Mechanical Engineering Professor Yu Zhou, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is the SUNYIT senior mentor; Elizabeth Vanderhoef, physics teacher from Holland Patent, and Gary VonDauber, technology teacher from New Hartford, are community senior mentors to the team.
“This was an outstanding performance by our area students—truly amazing,” said Robert Geer, SUNYIT acting president. “SUNYIT is proud to encourage student interest in science and technology accomplishment and leadership through programs such as FIRST. We are grateful to our own students and faculty, as well as mentors from the community, for their hard work and involvement.”
To enable their attendance at the FRC World Festival in St. Louis April 23-25, team members will raise more than $10,000 to cover travel and other costs. More information is available at: www.team5030.com.