Wayland robotics team members made an energetic swing at the Boston FIRST Regional Robotics Competition, taking 25th place among 53 participating teams this past Friday and Saturday in the Agganis Arena at Boston University.

This year’s standing is an improvement from last year’s competition—Wayland robotics team had placed 37th place out of 51 teams the year before.

More than a thousand students were present at the fourth annual Boston FIRST Regional Robotics Competition. The national competition’s name, FIRST, is an acronym for the phrase, “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”

As an ardent supporter of Wayland’s robotics team, Wayland High Principal Pat Tutwiler was also present at the event.

The competition pitted regional teams against one another in games. This year’s game, called Lunacy, was similar to a soccer game in which two three-team alliances try to get as many balls as they can into baskets attached to other teams’ robots.

“We [Team 2349, the Hurriquake] did really well at this year’s Boston regional competition,” said Costas Akrivoulis, one of the senior co-captains. “However, our final rank did not do us justice; we would have been an extremely valuable asset to any team that made it to the final rounds.”

Speaking of the final ranking, Max Hill, another senior co-captain of the team, said that Team Hurriquake deserves more credit because its robot was trouble-free and reliable. “Aside from making minor modifications to pass inspection, we spent zero time making last minute fixes in the pits. This is more than even the most experienced teams can say,” said Hill.

Each team had six weeks to design, build, program, and test a robot to participate in the game, assisted by their mentors and sponsors.

Members of the Team Hurriquake noted how the spirit of self-reliance led their season and competition. “Hurriquake prides itself on being a team where 100% of the work is done by students,” said Akrivoulis. “Whereas during the competition, if you go over to the other teams pits, you’ll see several adults hunched over their robots, trying to figure out and fix problems.”

As this year’s season closes, some members of the team are concerned about Team Hurriquake’s sustainability. The majority of the active and founding members of the Wayland robotics team are seniors who are graduating this year.

“I’m very worried about next year, since we have hardly any members left. Even those few active members need to learn different jobs for the team to actually function,” said June Kim, a member of the team, who is currently a freshman. “We need new dedicated members. ”

According to Akrivoulis, “[Current senior members] will be coming in during winter breaks, or maybe during weekends during the building season to see how the robot is and to provide help.”

As of now, there are discussions of making the robotics team as an elective, and some have even suggested merging the Team Hurriquake with another local high school’s team.

“Seniors this year will make sure that the continuing crew gets all the help they need,” said Akrivoulis. “We expect the team to continue next year.”

All photos were taken by Robin Kim.