Just as every teammate on the football or soccer teams at Poly Prep must cooperate with each other to win the next point or score another goal, the Poly Robotics Team members must work collectively to advance on to the next tournament. From Monday through Thursday after school, the team assembles in the Maker Space to work on their handbuilt robots for their next chance to advance through competitions. Every season, the First Tech Challenge League—the robotics league Poly’s team competes in—reveals the new challenge, and thousands of high schools and middle schools worldwide compete to make a robot that fulfills the task the best. This year’s goal is to build a robot that shoots a ball into a box. Schools first go through several qualifying rounds for their school’s region, and if they make it through those, they compete in the Regional Championships. Then, the winners continue to the Worlds competition in Houston, Texas. Out of hundreds of schools, the Poly Robotics Team has reached the New York City Championships every year since its establishment five years ago, and they are ready to go on to Worlds next.
The Robotics Team has multiple robots that compete, and each one has an emphasis on a specific aspect of the challenge—one might focus on smooth movement for the most accurate throwing, while another might be designed for power to throw farther. This way, the team can have multiple pathways to success in the tournaments. The team members have different roles: building, 3D printing, coding, testing and driving, and every member has to work together for the final robot to be successful.
Five years ago, Kristin Guynn, Computer Science Faculty Member and Director of Robotics, founded Poly Robotics and has since been joined in coaching by Tech Support Specialist Daniel Costello and Tech Support Specialist and Computer Science Faculty Member Vinson Huang. Guynn recalled that, when she was first recruiting students for the team, she just continued to push them to drop by practice even if they were unfamiliar with robotics or were not sure if it was something they would enjoy. “You won’t know what you like to do unless you actually do it,” said Guynn, and many students did end up finding a new passion in robotics.
Guynn said, “We almost run out of time [during practice] every day; you really need time to catch all the failures before you get to a tournament.” The team is dedicated to perfecting their robots as much as possible, and students even work outside of practice during their free periods. They will attend their first tournament of this school year in mid-November, but have been working on their robots since early in the school year.
Moreover, despite the pressure, there is a clear sense of ease and friendship in the Maker Space, and many students hold positive memories of bonds they have formed while on the team. Kiera Kinnane ’27 said, “competitions are a fun part [of being on the team], even if they are stressful, because everyone is there together and there’s a lot of team camaraderie.” Zahaan Batliboi ’27 recalled, “At competitions, sometimes I would go out with the seniors to get lunch, and it was a lot of fun.” He was not the only team member that found mentors in older Robotics students. Isabella Carire, who is now a senior herself, recalled that one of her favorite memories was working with Poly Alum Parsa Aghazadeh ’25 last year to build a robot when she had just joined the team and was new to the system.
As a reward for their dedication, the team has had great success all across the past five seasons. From the very first year that the team formed, they reached the Championships of the New York City region, and have continued to do so every year since. In last year’s Championships—the team’s most recent tournament—Poly Robotics placed 11th out of roughly 250 schools. “I think that there’s a very good chance we can make it to Worlds this year,” said Guynn.
The coaches have developed fondness for their robotics students in the time that they’ve guided them as well. Costello and Huang both agreed that they’ve loved watching the students develop by being on the team. “For us it’s just seeing how the students work and how we can help them bring their ideas to life,” shared Huang. Guynn also mentioned that, to her, the team’s diversity is one of its most outstanding attributes. “One of the things that I am very proud about, as a woman of color in STEM,” she said, is that, “people are always shocked to find out we are from Poly Prep, because we don’t look like a school that would be [from Poly], but we are always the most diverse team at any competition, not only by ethnicity, but also by gender, orientation, economically, and even just interests.” The Robotics Team, “naturally continues to bring a really diverse group because of the very welcoming environment that [the coaches] are very intentional in providing,” Guynn concluded.
