The Ramaz School robotics team, the Rambots, learned a lot from the CIJE Robotics Tournament. The Ramaz team built an agile robot, which could move in all directions, including sideways! The tournament was mainly based on picking up doughnut shape d-rings and placing the rings on stakes placed throughout the 12’ by 12’ playing field. Ramaz’s robot had an arm and a claw, which could pick up the rings.

The team did not have the tournament stakes in advance for practice, which was a challenge. As soon as the students arrived at the event, they grabbed a stake and attempted to place a ring, but the stake was a few inches too tall for the robot’s arm, and so wide at the bottom that the robot couldn’t get close enough to place the ring. Valiantly, the team, directed by Sami Rose F. ‘26 and Francesca S. ‘25, immediately borrowed a saw and made modifications.They cut back the front of the robot to get closer to the stakes— and they proceeded to win the first round! The students continued to experiment and make small improvements each round. In the last round, programmer Elisha H. ‘27 picked up the controls, racking up points before finally placing a ring on a stake and scoring the winning point!

The next CIJE competition is in March, and the Rambots are determined. Thanks to an anonymous donor, the team will purchase the game elements, which will allow them to practice and develop their robot with the game pieces prior to competition.