Summer school begins Monday, July 8
Cheer on members of the Albany High School robotics team this weekend as their home-made robot rescues video-game characters and their human operators trapped in an obsolete arcade game.
Their efforts will be part of the 2018 New York Tech Valley Regional FIRST Robotics Team competition, scheduled Friday and Saturday at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Albany High’s Team 1493 will be one of 34 Capital Region teams competing this year.
FIRST robotics competitions are held throughout the region, state, country and world. Each year, teams of high school students are presented with the challenge of building a robot that can complete a specific task. Every team has the same task, which changes from year to year.
This year’s challenge is to defeat “the boss” and allow the captive video characters and their operators to escape the retro arcade game. It involves two alliances of three teams each, with each team controlling a robot and performing specific tasks on a field to score points.
The alliance with the highest score defeats the boss and wins the game.
The Falcon team has spent the past six weeks building, programing and tinkering with its 2018 creation, which is made primarily of aluminum. The Falcon robot, named “Mark Cube-N,” weighs a total of 160 pounds.
The Tech Valley Regional Robotics competition is free and open to the public. It will be held at RPI’s East Campus Athletic Village, located on Peoples Drive in Troy. Click here for a schedule of each day’s events.
The Albany High robotics team consists of 28 students and advisors Rich Kissane, Brent Cady, Andre Castagna and Kyle Syck. Kissane is a retired Albany High teacher; the other three still teach there.
The team is assisted by RPI mentor Larry Ruff and National Grid mentor Jake Ennis.
The mission of the City School District of Albany is to work in partnership with our diverse community to engage every learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for success. The district serves about 9,600 students in 18 elementary, middle and high schools. In addition to neighborhood schools, the district includes several magnet schools and programs, as well as other innovative academic opportunities for students, including four themed academies at Albany High School.
