Harvey School News

Chalk another one up for the hugely successful, highly touted Harvey School robotics program. At the 2021 VEX Worlds Live-Remote Championship three-day competition May 20-22, the RoboCavs team of juniors Alex Piper, Wendy Lichtenberg, and Maggie Haber was awarded the Excellence Award, the event’s top prize.

 

The award-winning 6277D team was one of three Harvey squads to earn bids to compete in the Worlds tournament by virtue of their successes in the Southern New York State Championship in April. The RoboCavs “D” team had won the tournament championship and earned the Excellence Award (the tournament’s highest prize) in the April event. Team 6277B, composed of seniors Henry Oliver and Zi Glucksman and junior Giselle Groff earned a bid to Worlds by winning the Design Award. With a very good performance at states and with impressive showings in earlier skills runs, Harvey team 6277A with seniors Garrett Quinn and Alex Pradines and junior Mike Arbetter earned an invitation to the VEX Worlds as the RoboCavs’ third entry.

The three Harvey teams competed in the live-remote championship tournament that involved each team competing on the field at its own location as judges scored through Zoom from the VEX-sponsored site in Dallas, Texas. Scoring considered the skills of the team members to have their robots place red and blue balls on all four fields in attempts to "own" towers and create tic-tac-toes around the game field.

 

The three members of team 6277D, entering the elimination round as the No. 3 seed, won six of the seven matches before losing their subdivision final. Although coming up short for the tournament championship, they excelled in the interview phase conducted before match play. At the closing ceremonies, the team "D" members learned they had won the prestigious Excellence Award, given to the team that excelled in all areas of the competition, including match play, robot design, engineering journal, and interview. 

Alex Piper was thrilled to see his team take the tournament’s top prize. “The Worlds Excellence Award is the No. 1 award in the world, and to win it ever, let alone in my first year competing, was unbelievable. It truly made it an extra special year for our team” he said. Teammate Wendy Lichtenberg appreciates the teamwork that went into winning the award. “We all contributed toward it, it is a truly collaborative award,” Wendy said. She added, “In order to win, you have to do exceptionally well in the design process, documentation, and execution of the robot. I am ecstatic and so proud of our team that we won.” 

Team 6277B was also in the running for the Excellence Award in their division after having received the coveted “Judging Finalist” designation before the interview process.

Harvey robotics director Chris Kelly said, “I have to thank Mr. Knauer and Mr. Lazzaro for making the school year happen. Their efforts and the efforts of the administrative team to get our kids back in the classroom full time and then to a point where extracurricular activities could be possible were extraordinary and benefited all Harvey students. That our robotics teams had an opportunity to do what they are passionate about was the ultimate prize this year. I do laud them for the milestones that they have set - it was an incredible season.”