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Ossining Students Gear Up For Robotics Competition

OSSINING, N.Y. -- Ossining High School students have spent weeks tinkering with and tweaking the creations they hope will win them the chance to compete in a worldwide robotics competition.

Members of The Ossining O-Bots work on a creation they hope will win them an upcoming tourney in Rockland County and the chance to compete in a worldwide robotics competition this spring.

Members of The Ossining O-Bots work on a creation they hope will win them an upcoming tourney in Rockland County and the chance to compete in a worldwide robotics competition this spring.

Photo Credit: Contributed

The team, which calls itself The Ossining O-bots, called on its members to use all their scientific, engineering, technology and math skills to make the robots it will enter in the Hudson Valley Regional (HVR) FIRST® competition next month.

Forty-seven high school teams will be battling it out at the March 24-26 tourney.

The event takes place at Rockland Community College in Suffern. It is free and open to the public.

The students will be led by teachers Doug Albrecht and Mark Scinta, Ossining H.S. teacher, and Dr. Kenneth B. Ocheltree, s senior engineer/research scientist with IBM.

They and other teams are hoping to be picked to compete in the FIRST® Robotics World Competition, which is taking place in St. Louis in April.

Winners of the prestigious international competition receive recognition and opportunities associated with their engineering skills and achievements, including internships and jobs with organizations such as NASA and SpaceX.

SpaceX, aka Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, is an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, Calif.

“I’m so proud to see how far our team has come since our 2012 rookie year,” Albrecht said.

“These kids are our future problem solvers. Aside from the tremendous hands-on learning and real-life STEM skills implementation, they learn teamwork, persistence and how to cope with setbacks.”

Team members had to overcome many challenges, Albrecht said, adding: “It’s amazing and inspirational to watch and await the competition."

For more information, visit www.nycfirst.org/nycfirst-events/hudson-valley-regional.

Parents, prospective mentors, and students interested in getting involved or in starting a team to compete in 2018, can contact frcteams@firstinspires.org or visit www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/start-a-team.

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