The Alternative Press

NEWTON, NJ – Newton High School’s Team Aperture participated in its first international World Championship held in St. Louis, MO, placing 29^th out of 100 teams in their Galileo division.

“It was really exciting,” said the team’s captain, Richard Gerdes, a senior at Newton High School.

After a 14-hour ride, the students made it out to St. Louis to compete with 400 teams within four divisions from April 25 to 28.

Gerdes explained the competition, called Rebound Rumble, which consisted of three on three basketball between the robots, and two main phases. The first phase with program robots, and the second phase on driver control robots.

Gerdes added how it was judged on engineering, and design.

“There’s quite a learning curve between events,” said James Hofmann, Halsted Middle School Technology teacher, and coach for the robotics team.

Hofmann said while Team Aperture’s robot, “R, Robot” (designed by Max Bareiss, the teams design, programming and build leader), was bagged up in between events, other schools worked on identical robots to refine their testing.

In addition to the competition, the students had the opportunity to take in some of the local sites, and events. Among them was a St. Louis Cardinals game, and climb the St. Louis Arch.

“That was just a feat of engineering,” said Hofmann, remarking how some students overcame fear of heights while within the 630-foot high arch.

The team also had the chance to meet Assistant Secretary of Defense Zachary Lemnios at the NDEP booth.

Lemnios wore Hofmann’s varsity jacket, and Hofmann said, liked the jacket’s image. ‘”Keep on doing the great work that you are all doing,’” Hofmann said Lemnios told students.

“He was genuinely thrilled at what he had seen in terms of our three years and progress to date and speaking with all the team members,” added Hofmann.

Team Aperture was one of the 10 NDEP sponsored teams at the St. Louis competition.

For Gerdes it was bittersweet, as his final year on the team.

“It helped me to learn about computers and robotics,” Gerdes said of participating on the team over the last two years.

He will be attending Rutgers in the fall, majoring in computer science, and eventually transitioning to the school’s engineering program. He will continue to be involved with Team Aperture in the future as a mentor.

Team Aperture’s next fundraiser will be a car wash across from St. Paul’s Abbey on Route 206, on Saturday, May 12 from 10am to 3pm.

On Sunday, May 20, Krogh’s Restaurant and Brew Pub in the White Deer Plaza in Sparta will donate 10 percent of all food sales to the team, as well as tack on an additional $2 each when a promotional flyer is brought in with the order.

For complete information on the Newton Robotics Team click here to access the group’s website. http://newtonroboticsteam.org/