Category Archives: Robotics

Eagle Engineers Take Top Honor at Robotics Tournament

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Robotics By Annette V. Stone ’16

Chaminade’s Eagle Engineering Robotics Team 1138 perpetuated their winning tradition by taking the Excellence Award at the California Academy of Math and Science Vex Invitational robotics tournament at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach this weekend. This was their second year in a row earning top honors at this event. The team delivered a solid performance, finishing third in the qualifying rounds at 5-1. They then carried their three-team alliance through the semi-finals against some very tough competition. The Excellence Award is considered the highest honor in Vex Robotics Competition and goes to the best overall team in robot performance as well as all judged categories. Cited in their award presentation were the effectiveness of their robot, a solid team approach to design and construction, and most notably an impressive exhibition of programming prowess.

This award qualifies the team for the California High School Vex Robotics Competition State Championship to be held in Santa Clara, March 14-16 ‑ the next step in their goal to return to the World Championship in April.

Team 1138 Sponsors include Xerox, Boeing, Aerojet/Rocketdyne and HBO.

The 2008 Middle School Robotics Team Honored with Hall of Fame Induction

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Chaminade’s Middle School Robotics Team 83 was honored this weekend with an induction into the REC Foundation’s Vex Robotics Hall of Fame. The hall recognized Team 83 for being the first World Championship Middle School Excellence Award winner in 2008. The Excellence Award is the highest honor in Vex Robotics competition and is awarded to teams who perform at the highest level both on and off the field.Four of the original members of that World Championship team are now seniors on the High School team: Morgan Montalvo, Nathan Smeltzer, Steven Paqueo and Freddie Burnett. They attended their fifth consecutive World Championship this year and were joined by the next generation of Middle School engineers Christina Najm ’17, Noah Hosaka ’18, Christian Gideon ’19 and Cooper Baker ’17.

Eagle Engineering Robotics Team 1138 Stages Astounding Comeback for FRC Regional Tournament Win

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Chaminade’s Eagle Engineering Robotics Team 1138 brought home a big win from the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) San Diego Regional Tournament, showing incredible grit and determination by battling back from last place to land a spot in the tournament finals and becoming part of the winning three-team alliance. This was Chaminade’s first FRC Regional Tournament victory since 2006.

The team began in good form on Thursday with a smooth day of inspection, practice and programming. However, once qualifying rounds began, they faced an uncommon string of technical and design malfunctions, strong opposing alliances and a large dose of bad luck to find themselves in 59th place after the first seven of 10 qualifying matches. “We knew that the ranking did not truly reflect our robot’s performance on the field, or the capabilities of our drive team and pit crew, but it’s tough for any team to stay hopeful after such a rough first day,” said the team’s head coach, Tommy Smeltzer. “They did it though. They kept at it and found a way to win.”

After a lively team dinner, Friday night, 1138’s student leaders met to discuss their options. Knowing that the top ranked teams would be choosing two alliance partners to compete with them in the finals and that the prodigious scorers would need a strong defensive partner to get them past other high-scoring teams, they decided to adopt a new strategy in their final three qualifiers to demonstrate the robot’s strong defensive capabilities. The plan worked, and 1138 was chosen by the top-seeded alliance comprised of two previous world champions, teams 987 from Cimarron-Memorial High School in Las Vegas and Team 254 from Bellarmine College Preparatory in the San Francisco Bay area. This powerhouse alliance, with Team 1138 shutting down the offensive stars of the opposing alliances, was able to sweep each round of the finals and take home the tournament championship. Each of the teams now progress to the FRC National Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 24-27.

Middle School Robotics head to California State Championship

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The Middle School VEX Robotics Team 83 had an outstanding showing at the California Academy of Math and Science in Carson. The team made it into the finals and received the Overall Excellence Award. Christina Najm ’17 and Yuri Lim ‘17 have qualified for the California State Championship, which will be held in Santa Clara on March 15 and 16.  Congratulations to the girls, moderator Mrs. Najm, and coach Patrice Galliath on a job well done!

Eagle Engineering Team 1138-B Takes Top Award at Viewpoint Robotics Competition

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By Tommy Smeltzer

For the second week in a row, Chaminade robotics has brought home the top award from a regional tournament and qualified another robot for the Vex Robotics World Championships in Anaheim next April. Three sub-teams from Chaminade’s Eagle Engineering robotics (1138-A, B and K), along with Chaminade Middle School’s “Generation Vex” Vex team, Team 83 competed with 34 other California teams at the “Clash in The Canyon” robotics tournament on Saturday, with Team 1138-B taking home the tournament’s highest honor, the Excellence Award. Winning their way to tournament finalists for the second week in a row, Team 1138-B dominated many of their qualifying matches with the exceptional speed of their scoring mechanism. Driver’s Michael Amoun ’13 and Anthony Gruppuso ’13 and field coach Brandon Sezgin ’13 had been a leading force for Eagle Engineering since summer; designing, building and practicing with their robot nearly every day with excellent focus and leadership. They were supported by a highly dedicated pit of Greg Campbell ’15 (builder and driver support), Chance Bisquera ’15 (pit management and scouting) and exceptional programming by Kevin Pick ’15. Thomas Manfredonia ’13 and Andrew Adalian ’15 from Team 1138-A also provided support in this win. Team 1138-A and Team 83 from the middle school also made it into the finals, and Team 1138-K performed admirably in their first appearance of the year. The team next competes in Granada Hills on November 17th, where it hopes to qualify its three rookie teams for the annual championship event.