Conicelli Sponsors Robotics Team at Malvern Prep High School

The Malvern Prep Robotics team is one of the most popular clubs on its campus. Now in its 10th year, it is made up of 24 Malvern Prep students. The Robotics team’s mission is to promote and nurture its members’ interests in all elements of engineering.

Current Team members and positions include:

Member	Position/Division	Grade
Mike Arpa	CEO	12
Tim Valente	CFO	11
Connor Burns	Chief/Engineer	11
Mike Ciesielski	Cheif/Electrical	11
Jacob Blomski	Chief/Mechanical	12
Pasquale Defillppo	Cheif/Programming	11
Martin Prammer	Webmaster/Programming	9
Chris White	Admin Assistant	10
Errika Arrojado	Programming	12
Pete Schiavone	Programming	11
Matt McNally	Electrical	11
Tom Allen	Electrical	10
Joe Martin	Electrical	9
Madeline Iffert	Mechanical	12
Suzanne Krepelka	Mechanical	12
Sarah Maguire	Mechanical	12
Morgan Devlin	Mechanical	11
Lindsey Nestor	Mechanical	10
Allie Wisniewski	Mechanical	10
Joe Dolan	Mechanical	10
Andrew Wilson	Mechanical	10
Cecilia Horchos	Mechanical	9
Brian Sayers	Mechanical	9
Cameron Dewey	Mechanical	9

Each year, the Robotics team builds a new “Friarbot,” a robot based on specifications issued by FIRST, an international non-profit that aims to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, and rewards teamwork, real-world skills, and “gracious professionalism.” The team only had six weeks to design, build and program the robot from a parts kit made up of a mix of automation components, motors, batteries and a PC – but no instructions – and a video of what the end-result should be able to do.

This year’s game was called “LOGO MOTION.” Two alliances of three teams competed on a 27-by-54-foot field. The match started with a 15-second Autonomous Period when robots operate on their own to hang pieces on the game grid. Then, within 2 minutes and 15 seconds, the alliances aimed to score points by operating their robots to hang as many as possible triangle, circle and square logo pieces on pegs. The higher the teams hang their pieces on the grid, the more points their alliance receives. Additional points are awarded for each robot that hangs the pieces to form the FIRST logo. At the end of that period, the robots can then deploy mini robots to climb vertical poles for a chance to earn bonus points.

This year the team traveled to Hofstra University in Long Island to compete in the Hempstead Regional. They were the first team to fully pass inspection on Thursday, and spent much of the afternoon participating in practice rounds. They did very well on Friday and Saturday, with one of the few mini-bots, and by far the most reliable mini-bot. At the end of the day, they were in 13th place. Saturday morning dawned with two more competition rounds, and they ended up in 10th place! This is the best Malvern has ever done.

With help from sponsors such as Conicelli, the team will compete in future robotic events while always striving to build a better, faster, and more reliable robot.

Click here for more information about the Malvern Prep Robotics Team and view some of their videos from the competition:

Malvern Prep Robotics Team
First Robotics 2011 Hofstra Quarter Final Match 
First Robotics 2011 Hofstra Qualifying Match
Tutorial of how the game is played

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