Waterbury High Schools Are Forefront in RoboticsLocal Students Continually Place High in National Competition
The high school students of Waterbury are continuing a reputation of being among the best robotics creators in the North East. Hosting the 2018 FIRST Robotics Competition again, Wilby High School, in the Bucks Hill neighborhood, attracted over 1,000 participants and spectators for the event this past weekend.
Teams from all of the North East, 32 in all, proudly offered their wares of technology and inventiveness. This year’s theme for the event is “1980’s Video Arcade”. The Nuts & Bolts of Fury team, of John F. Kennedy High School in the City’s historic Town Plot Hill neighborhood, brought their Cube-rt marvel to the event. Cube-rt proved to be strong, durable, and agile. Crosby High School, of the East End neighborhood in Waterbury, also competed with an impressive and strong robot as well. 
The district championship will be in Boston this year, and the world championship is slated for Detroit.
In 2017, Crosby High School’s team in the competition, the Bullbots, placed 12th, in their 2nd year of competition, out of 77 qualifying rounds with 42 teams competing. The Kennedy team, Nuts & Bolts of Fury, placed 11th last year, which was their 6th year in the competition. The design prowess and ingenuity of Andrew “Andy” Work, then a student now a graduate, catapulted the Nuts & Bolts of Fury into a feverish drive for success and competition with his intellectual contributions in the competitions early years and Kennedy’s first venture into the realm of robotics. In 2015, the Kennedy Nuts & Bolts of Fury represented Waterbury in the competition, and successfully placed among the 34 teams that participated that year. Crosby also competed in 2013 as Crosby Robotics Team, taking the highest rookie seed, while the Nuts & Bolts of Fury won the Team Spirit Award that year. When the Kennedy team first qualified for the World Championship FIRST Robotics Competition last year, the accomplishment grabbed the attention of Stephanie Cummings, now an Officer of the East Mountain Neighborhood Association, City of Waterbury Alderwoman, and Connecticut State Representative. Cogsworth, Kennedy’s robot, brought them to the finals in the Saint Louis competition. 
Nuts & Bolts of Fury sponsors and supporters include NASA/Lockheed Martin Corporation, Comcast Corporation, Bitworks LLC, Frontier Communication, Walmart, ECUA Remodeling LLC, Manz Automotive Distributors, Harwinton Tree Service LLC, Gowans-Knight Company Incorporated, JoVek Tool & Die Manufacturing, Afable Consulting, The Nelson Heat Treating Company, UniMetal, Atlantic Steel & Processing, & John F. Kennedy High School. The Bulbots’ sponsors and supporters include the Waterbury Board of Education, Lockheed Martin, and Crosby High School.
NE FIRST® is the operational partner of the FIRST® Robotics Competition in the six New England states, and is supported by ingenuityNE, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity incorporated in the State of Connecticut, according to their website. |
Staff WriterMarch 7th, 2018
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