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Robotics Team Wins Regional January 2015 Competitions

Junior Vasilios Nicholas also earns two individual robotics awards; more teams qualify for state championship.
Ranney Robotics Team members won again on January 17, 2015, at one of the largest regional VEX Robotics events in the state so far this season. Ranney students led 7 robots into competition, 5 of which made it to the final rounds. In fact, 5 of the 6 robots in the final round were Ranney robots.

Two teams won the overall competition (defeating three other Ranney teams):
Team D: led by Vasilios Nicholas ‘16
Team K: led by Ben Iglesia ‘17

Participating in the final round were:
Team B: led by Brandon Gioggia ’17
Team M: led by Rylan Foy ‘18
Team G: led by Kiran Shah ‘18

Teams K and G have now qualified for the New Jersey State Championship, bringing the total number of Ranney School robots going to states to 7.

Ranney junior Vasilios Nicholas also won two individual awards, including the “Driver Skills Award” for the highest individual score and the “Think Award” for programming. The judges said his robot had “consistent autonomous performance with two separate programs, one of which scored 5 points.”


Update (Feb. 4, 2015): Ranney Robotics won a fourth tournament on Jan. 31, 2015 at South Brunswick, bringing home 4 trophies after competing against 41 robots in all, and qualifying an eighth Ranney team for the New Jersey State Championship. For the first time this school year, all 12 of our teams participated (10 Upper School, two Middle School). The tournament champtions included:
 
Team D: Vasilios Nicholas, Andrew Denton, Jacob Guss and Jack Fink
Team B: Brandon Gioggia, Coleen Ross and Ava Papetti
Team F: Aidan Denver-Moore, Jillian Ross and Nick Ross (state qualificatoin)
 
Ranney’s A Team (senior Raymond Moser, senior Amy Winkler and ninth-grader Chris Glenn) won an Innovate Award for a unique feature of their robot utilized autonomous programming. The students designed a device that accurately positioned their robot on the field to perform its autonomous task (no human operators control a robot during the autonomous period). Ranney’s Our G Team, made up of ninth-graders, Kiran Shah, Chip Johnson and Max Bonavento, finished in 2nd place after the qualifying rounds, a great accomplishment for such a young team. They lost in the semifinals after a tough tie-breaker against an alliance with two other more experienced Ranney teams (our A and J teams). Finally, one of our two middle school teams, the P Team, made up of Anthony Virone and Ananya Pandey, finished in 19th place in its first competition ever. 

Says Vasilios Nicolas, “I’m proud of our robot's performance in this competition. We went undefeated, and in many matches, we won with more than double our opponent’s score. We overcame some frustrating balance issues that made driving a little harder, but by the end of the day, we were able to score six skyrises in 60 seconds, a record for our team and for all teams in New Jersey."
 
Adds Brandon Gioggia, “My robot experience technical difficulties early in the day, but once we fixed the problem, we went undefeated for the remainder of the day. It was a good comeback tournament for me after losing last week’s tournament.”

Update (Feb. 18, 2015): Over Presidents’ Day Weekend, three additional Ranney teams qualified for the New Jersey State VEX Robotics Championship, meaning that all 12 of Ranney’s Robotics teams will now be competing at states. The championship event is taking place in Cherry Hill on Feb. 21, 2015. The newly qualifying teams include: Team E: Sophomores Adam Mohammed, Dylan Biswal and Mike DePalma; Team R: Eighth-graders Sathya Edemadaka and Rohan Sharma; and Team H: Junior Zachary Sullens, sophomore Kyle Lubin and sophomore Nicole Rasmussen.

Team G and Team H also earned awards at the latest February event. Team G (Kiran Shah, Chip Johnson and Max Bonavento) earned a Build Award for their well-crafted robot and Team H earned a Judges Award for their beautifully engineered claw.
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society. 

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