Write a commentOswego’s own Freezing Code Robotics Team Wins Northern New York State VEX Robotics Championship for Third Straight Year!
Competitive robotics has grown in popularity all over New York state and the world. VEX Robotics introduces a new game each April and teams begin right away to design their robots to complete the task of scoring the most points. This year in the game “Nothing But Net”, the object is to score balls and bonus balls in a low or high goal as well as elevate a robot in the climbing zone. Two alliance partners have the opportunity to score within the 12’X12’ field while playing against two other alliance partners. Competition matches are very exciting to watch as there is a 15 second autonomous portion (robot is programmed to score) and a 1 minute and 45 second drivercontrolled portion. The maximum score an alliance can attain is still to be determined but it is around 400 points. That is a lot of action considering a green ball in a low goal is worth 1 point and a green ball in a high goal is worth 5. A bonus ball (orange ball) is worth double in those areas. A robot that is “low elevated” by another robot (4” off the ground) is worth 25 points and a “high elevated” (12” off the ground) is worth 50 points. The team that gains the most points in the autonomous period of 15 seconds is awarded 10 bonus points. The twominute match with 4 robots on the field is action packed. Robots scurry around the field picking up balls and scoring them in goals. There is a lot of offensive and defensive strategizing by alliance partners throughout the game to outscore the opponents!
Freezing Code has excelled at strategizing, building, coding, and driving their bots since they formed in 2013. Each year, Freezing Code Robotics Club adds additional members and due to the number of young engineers on the team, the club was able to form two teams for the 2015-2016 competition season: Freezing Code and Freezing Code Too. The members of the teams are high school students from Oswego, NY. They are Matthew Bates, Michael Beckwith, Jr., Jeremy Braiman, Adam Humphrey, Jordan Runner, Jordan Tryon, Lydia Tryon, and Katrina Usiatynski. The coaches/mentors are Daniel Tryon and Mark Humphrey.
Since the very beginning of this competition season, which began in November 2015 at a tournament in Liverpool, NY, Freezing Code has been improving their robots, receiving awards, and winning every tournament they enter! Freezing Code Robotics has traveled to 8 regional level tournaments across Northern New York State, the farthest one being Lansingburgh. That makes for an early departure time, especially when robot inspection begins at 8:30 am! The tired teens would all load up in vehicles driven by their parents with much anticipation for a competitive, “VEXing”, and fun day! The Oswego team even hosted their own robotics competition, The Oswego Nor’easter, just a week before the Northern New York State Championship.
Qualifying for the New York State championship required Freezing Code to win a regional tournament or earn a highly coveted Excellence Award or Design Award at one of the regional contests. Freezing Code did that and then some! In the 8 regional tournaments that Freezing Code competed in, they went undefeated, winning all 8. In addition, they froze out competing teams four times for the Excellence Award, two times for the Design Award, four times for the Programming Autonomous Skills Award, and two times for the Driver Robot Skills Award. Freezing Code qualified for the NYS Tournament many times over! In fact, when Freezing Code and Freezing Code Too were able to be alliance partners at the Oswego Nor’easter, they achieved a score of 388, second highest in the world, just behind the top score of 394 earned by teams in Colorado earlier in the year.
Freezing Code won the New York State Championship in 2014 and again in 2015. This year the New York State championship was the biggest ever, with 50 teams earning the right to compete in the final showdown of the season. Freezing Code brought their secret weapon – a brand new robot design they had secretly been working on for months. The new design was so effective at scoring points and so fast moving around the field that the team was able to compete all day long without a single loss. Even perennial rivals such as Saratoga Springs, Fulton, Chittenango, and Rome, all praised the Oswego roboteers on such an outstanding robot design and dominating team performance. In the Autonomous skills challenge, each team at the tournament programs their robot to navigate the competition field, manipulate scoring objects, and perform 60 seconds of tasks that score points. Freezing Code scored 300 points in the Autonomous Skills Challenge. Their jawdropping score was almost 5 times more then the next best team in New York and ranks them 53rd, out of the 15,000 teams around the world that have attempted the same challenge!
The outstanding world ranking in autonomous skills ranks them ahead of past world championship teams from China, New Zealand, Canada, and Japan. The Freezing Code Team earned one of the 9 coveted invitations given to New York teams to attend the Worlds VEX Robotics Championship to be held in April!
The VEX “Nothing But Net” World Championship, to be held in Louisville, KY on April 20-April 23, will be an epic robotic challenge with 500 teams competing from 27 countries around the world! The Freezing Code Robotics Club members have the opportunity once again to join the elite robotic teams from around the world, but only if they can raise enough money to attend. They have until April 19th to do just that!
We have started a campaign to raise $10,000.00 to send the eight Freezing Code club members and their two coaches to this worldstaged event. We have less than 2 months to secure funding to make this happen. We are working on ways to recognize private and corporate sponsors willing to contribute to this cause and/or sponsor the team next year. We need your help. For more information, please visit the website: www.freezingcode9282.com.
We are also raising funds to continue this club for 2016-2017 and beyond! Fundraising is crucial to the club’s existence next year! It costs about $6,500 to run the club for a year. This money would help the team compete at the regional level for one season.
If you would like to support Freezing Code and assist Oswego in providing opportunities and excitement for both boys and girls in STEM fields, please visit our facebook page (“Freezing Code 9282”) or the web ( www.freezingcode9282.com ). You can also watch us on youtube (search by keyword Freezing Code 9282). Fundraisers over the next 5 weeks include a bottle/can drive (3/19) and a Canale’s night (3/28). Returnables can be dropped off at any of the Great Lake Redemption Center locations in Oswego and placed on the “Freezing Code Robotics Club” account. Please contact Dan Tryon ( daniel.tryon@oswego.edu ) to support the team. Thank you for your support and interest.
