From March 16 -18, the Yeshiva University High School for Boys robotics team, Lionotics 2, competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge East Region Super-Regional Championship at Scranton University in Scranton, becoming the first-ever yeshiva high school team to participate in the coveted robotics competition. While other participating teams played their matches over the course of the full three-day event, Lionotics 2, played all nine of their matches back-to-back on Sunday in order to avoid desecrating the Shabbat.
Though the rookie team had little to no competition experience, Lionotics 2 embraced the challenge of competing in consecutive rounds despite the great disadvantages the incredibly tight schedule presented, specifically the lack of time to strategize or make required improvements and repairs to their robot.
“As soon as we met the boys we knew they had the passion for robotics, but more important, a thirst for learning and experiencing new challenges, such as this competition,” said Tom Zawislak and Dave Hackett of Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics, the East Super Regional hosts who were instrumental in making the accommodations necessary for the team to compete. “We were thrilled to see them engage with so many other teams and create fun for themselves and share their fun with others. They truly came ready to play and were competitive on the field throughout all of their matches. Very impressive performance by a rookie team!”
Lionotics 2 was created this year to make room for students who were closed out of YUHSB’s original robotics team, Lionotics. Despite it being the team’s inaugural year, they surpassed the pre-existing YUHSB team in the FIRST Tech Challenge and won the NYC Championship to qualify for East Region Super-Regional Championship. When it became clear that the event overlapped with Shabbat, the YUHSB administrators and Yeshiva University’s Department of Legal Affairs worked closely with FIRST representatives to reach a resolution that would enable the team to participate in the competition without compromising their religious observances.
“Our team worked tirelessly to advance to this level of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition,” said YUHSB Head of School Rabbi Joshua Kahn. “We are grateful to FIRST for promoting cultural diversity and making the accommodations necessary to enable our team to compete.”
The competition started off with a win for Lionotics 2, but ultimately took a downturn as issues continued to arise.
“In one match, one of the robot’s critical components was smashed by another team’s robot and bent, and our team didn’t realize until the next round when it didn’t work right due to the rush from match to match,” explained Lionotics 2 team member Elishama Marmon of Bergenfield. “The robot also had connectivity issues, and there were several matches where it was unresponsive due to unplugged wires or glitches.”
The team finished 23rd out of 36 teams in their division and will not move on to the world championship. “Thanks to our experience at this competition, we now have a better understanding of what we need to do to win at such a high level,” said Akiva Richman of West Hemsptead. “We are working on improving the team and hope to advance to the world championship next year.”
