Brooklyn’s ‘Nerd Herd’ advances to robot regionals
An army of robots put through their paces at NYU-Poly
On Saturday, hundreds of high school students and an army of rolling robots filled the gym at NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering in Downtown Brooklyn to participate in NYC FIRST’s robotics competition.
As supporters cheered them on, thirty six teams from the city and Long Island put their shopping-cart-sized mechanisms through a series of challenges in the FIRST Tech Challenge Regional Championship. The teams have been developing their robots, with the guidance of adult mentors, for months.
Brooklyn’s St. Edmund Prep’s “Nerd Herd,” won the “Alliance Second Pick” award, and will be one of eight teams from Saturday’s event advancing to the East Super-Regional Tournament in York, Pennsylvania on April 3. There they will compete to represent the NYC region at the FTC World Championship on April 23 – 26 in St. Louis. The Nerd Herd is coached by Erica Barbier. The team, which has a solid record of winning tournaments, sold lollipops, applied for grants and held a fashion show to raise funds for their school’s STEM robotics club.