Engineered for Success: GFS' Upper School Robotics Team Performs Well at Regional Competitions

The GFS Upper School Robotics Team turned in strong performances in several rounds of regional competitions this month.

At their first competition of the season at Great Valley, with Esme Baxter ’27, Katherine Paulis ’27, Pavan Mangalmurti ’28, Max Poziumschi ’28, Kern Labaw ’29, Thomas Paulis ’29, and Jaden Wang ’29 representing team “18450A,” they won the majority of head-to-head matches thanks to their robot’s reliable drive base and block manipulators. While they made it to the first elimination match, they were ultimately knocked out in the quarter finals. 

Students entered the next competition in Norristown with more confidence and were able to test out new strategies. They also took the opportunity to present their robot for a team interview, answering questions about their design process, their individual roles on the team, and the unique features of their robot. These interviews are one step in earning awards for outstanding design or conduct. They also tried the "skills challenge," in which the robot completes tasks alone on the field (rather than in a match). 

“In the head-to-head qualification matches, our robot's performance was more consistent and improved over last weekend, however the competition was tougher this time around, with three times as many teams competing,” said Jillian Ma, Computer Science teacher and Robotics Advisor. “The team also tried some bolder and riskier strategies during matches, sometimes paying off to cinch a victory, other times costing us a game. It was a good learning experience all around.”