The Beta Club from Saint Pius V High School, an all female school in the south Bronx, entered the FIRST (FOR INSPIRATION and RECOGNITION for SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY) Robotics NYC Regional Competition under the direction of Ms. Sheree Petrignani and Mr. Ara Kudyan, both math teachers at Saint Pius V High School, to finish what we have stared. They are honored to participate in this competition because they are the first all-female, parochial school team t ever compete i the New York State/NE/US at this competition. Because of the Princesses' achievements, they have inspired several other all-girl schools to want to participate.
The nature of the game in 2003 was called "Stack Attack," where each robot pushed and stacked huge rectangular Tupperware storage boxes. The game for 2004 was called "FIRST Frenzy, Raising the Bar," was a basketball game with hockey points, and a kick-off and only has six weeks to build and perfect a robot. The robot has mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering applications. Features of the robot consist of arms, artificial intelligence (making a robot move on it's own), and levers. Our students with direction from teachers and mentors spend hours milling, wiring and programming the robot. The competition also includes PR, Fund-raising, website design, CAD/CAM mechanical drawings, animation, team spirit booth and cheerleading.
The Pius Princesses brought home our first year, the trophy for "Rookie All-Star Award of the year 2003". They placed 20 out of 30 at the NYC Regional and 37 out of 100 for their website design.
In their second year, we won"The Imagery Award of 2004" for mentoring elementary and middle co-ed schools on how to hone their talents in math, science and technology through FIRST Robotics. This award also recognized software and hardware design, such as creating a web site, mechanical drawings/robotic body design and animation. Also, this year the Princesses added a cheerleading squad to boost the "Team Spirit" of the entire competition. They placed 12 out of 33 on their first day of the competition and on their second day of the competition they ranked 23 out of 33. To day, we are working on a larger goal, which is to be the first all-girl parochial team to compete in the nationals.
You might have heard about eh "PIUS PRINCESSES" in their pink shirts, tiaras and tool belts on The Discovery Channel and Channel 12 News- The Bronx. The Discovery Channel chose our team from several other competing teams to be documented for their teamwork and progress that lead up to the competition. FYI, the "Pius Princesses" were aired this fall on the Discovery Channel/Science Channel from September to November 2003. In January 2004, the "Pius Princesses were featured at Lehman College's Radio Talk Live, on Bronx Network Channel 68, and will be inaugurated into The National Beta Honor Society.
Desperately trying to prove we are as intelligent and hardworking as the other competing teams; we searched for sponsors to donate their time and/or money so we so we had a chance at succeeding in building our robot. It was hard to find sponsors at first. Fund-raising was a prime factor in the competition as it is quite costly to enter the competition. At first it was quite difficult to find sponsor, but each year we managed to put together the necessary funds. Through television exposure by the Science Channel the team was lucky enough to acquire a "tool angel" this year to donate machinery and supplies to build the robot. Our successes have opened the door for other all-girl teams to take up the challenge. Women have faith and guidance to know that they can win and will win no matter what barriers or obstacles we may have to overcome.
If you are interested in helping our team by making a donation Click Here .
