TechFire gears up for robotics competitions – York Dispatch

TechFire member Brett Gallagher, 14, of Stewartstown, works on his laptop while teammember Katie Neptune, 13, of Manchester Township, looks on as the team prepares for their upcoming FIRST Robotics Competition in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)Buy Photo

For the past six weeksYork County's robotics team, TechFire 225, has been hard at work on their competition robot for the upcoming season.

During that time, 36 students on the team have poured every spare second they have into their robot before the Feb. 21 deadline, after which the team has very strict instructions on when and how they can work on their robot.

TechFire 225 is a local For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) team. FIRST is a global organization with a focus on getting kids interested in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and robotics. According tothe website, FIRST has more than 400,000 students who participate each year.

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TechFire 225represents 11 different schools in York County and has students from age 13 to 18. These students compete year round, but the main season runs from January to April each year.

On Jan.7, this year's FIRST competition was announced. Each year the competition hasa newtheme with different sets of rules, so upon the announcement the students, with the help of approximately 13 community mentors, begin building a brand new robot each year from scratch.

If you ask to see the robot or take photos, don't expect to get far. This team is the real deal and takes its competition seriously. They won't post any photos of their robot or its design before competition to keep that edge against other teams in the region.

This season:This year's theme is "FIRST Steamworks" and involves robots picking up balls, which represent fuel, and shooting them into a machine. The robots must also pick up gears that are handed to human players and must be able to climb up a rope at the end of the game, among many other things.Each part of the game results inpoints.Three FIRST teams form an alliance during the competition to compete against an alliance three other teams.

Amy Harmon Krtanjek

, a team mentor,said TechFire 225 spent two or three days after the worldwide announcementanalyzing the rules and coming up with different aspects the robot absolutely needed to have, like a space to carry the balls that the robot needed to be able to pick up.

After that, the team immediately began prototyping and building different aspects of the robot. The robot must be sealed in a bag at midnight on Feb. 21 to ensure it is not opened again. The team may unseal the bag and work on the robot for a total of sixhours after the deadline and leading up to the start of competition in March, but these hours need to be meticulously logged or they could be disqualified from competing, team mentor Donnie Krtanjek said.

Donnie Krtanjek is Amy Harmon Krtanjek's husband. Their son, Jagr

, is also involved in TechFire 225 as a student from York Country Day School.

TechFire 225 goes above and beyond just completing a competition robot, a difficult task alone.

They also create an exact replica of their competition robot, which they will work on and use after the Feb. 21 deadline. This extra robot allows them to practice after the deadline and make changes. If they like the changes or notice problems, they know exactly what to fix on the competition robot and can do it quickly, so they don't waste one minute of thesixhours they have.

Being a student on the TechFire 225 team requires important skills for the future, like working on a large team, working on deadline, marketing, communicating an idea effectively and, of course, plenty of skills in technology and engineering.

"It teaches kids persistence," Amy Krtanjek said. "A lot of times the kids here are really smart, so they've never really hit a wall in school."

They hit plenty of walls with TechFire 225, though.

JagrKrtanjek,a sophomore at York Country Day school who works with the Computer Aided Design (CAD) section of the team, said that building involves a lot of trial and error. Jagr helps builda computerized idea of what the robot should look like, so that while teams are working on different aspects, he can make sure they all come together seamlessly. This requires a lot of updates and changes as they go.

The regional competition starts in March, but TechFire 225 won't compete until March 18 and 19.On March 18 the team will compete for their rank, which is used with other data by teams to figure out who their alliances should be. March 19 will be the playoffcompetition. This competition will take place in Philadelphia.

After that, the team will compete in Montgomery, Pennsylvaniaon April 1 and 2. Depending on how well they do, the team will move on to compete in the world championships at the end of April.

TechFire team member Ben Schwartz, 14, of Hopewell Township, looks for spacers for the gear holder while working on the teams robot for their upcoming FIRST Robotics Competition, in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)

Last year:TechFire 225 could very well attend the world matches. The team is coming back from last year's phenomenal season, during which they did attend the world championship and placed in the top 24 teams out of 3,200, according to an earlier press release.

The team also attended the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI), a competition Jagr described as even more difficult than FIRST's competitions because it is by invitation only. Each year only 70 of the most successful teams in the country are chosen. TechFire 225 has been invited for the past three years, but this year they took second place in their alliance with other robotics teams and broke a world record.

York robotics students excel at world championships

The Team:Representing 11 different schools in York County and a variety of ages, the TechFire 225 team is incredibly diverse. One thing they all have in common is a passion for their robot, yet to be named. Each member chips in by doing whatever they can, even if it has littleto do with the technological side.

For example, 16-year-old Elle Wagner works on the scouting side of things. She's worked with other members to build an app that organizes different FIRST teams' competition information. She's instrumental in choosing who they should partner with during competitions. She first joined three years ago when she heard about the team in class at Susquehannock High School and went to an event.

"I love the strategy, I think it's so cool," Elle said.

Her favorite part about being on the team is the dynamic, not only among her own team members but the other teams during competition. FIRST, and thus TechFire 225, are huge proponents of gracious professionalism, which means being gracious even to your competitors regardless of the outcome.

"Everyone respects everyone," Ellesaid. "It's not just robots. The team environment is different than any other sport."

TechFire CAD team member Jagr Krtanjek, 15, of Loganville, works with specs for the FIRST Robotics Competition Team's robot in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)

Through her time at TechFire, Elle has found a passion for bio engineering, which she ultimately hopes to major in when she graduates.

Kylie Nikolaus, a 17-year-old senior on the team from Eastern York High School, has had a similar experience, but unlike Elle she loves the technical side. She joined the team four years ago with her best friend and has been an active member ever since.Thanks to TechFire 225, Kylie will also studyengineering, but she isn't sure which school she'll attend just yet.

"I think no matter what someone is interested in, there's a place for them here," she said, referring to the opportunities to work on the team's social media, marketing to sponsors and donors and other aspects.

Bryce Neptune, a 16-year-old student from Central York High School, joined TechFire 225 two years ago after he heard about it through the grapevine and was hooked immediately. He said TechFire helped him break out of his shell and realize his dream of studying engineering at MIT.

"It helps you broaden your horizons and helps you refine skills," Bryce said.

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TechFire gears up for robotics competitions - York Dispatch