High School North will be invaded by robots on Saturday, June 28, as the WW-P Robotics team, the MidKnight Inventors, hosts its second annual FIRST Robotics Competition event. MidKnight Mayhem will feature more than 30 high school robotics teams from across the country in a fast-paced competition, where remote-controlled robots in teams of three must assist each other to score points in the FIRST Robotics game called “Aerial Assist.” The competition runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
MidKnight Inventors, mentors for elementary and middle school teams, will be demonstrating their robots throughout the day. “The competition is free and open to the public,” says Sarah Slemmon, co-captain of the MidKnight Inventors. “The robots compete against each other, and there’s only one ball per alliance, so they get extra points for sharing in the assists as they move down the field. Often the matches are decided with a last-second shot. It’s really exciting.”
The team includes more than 90 students from high schools North and South. They are assisted by volunteer adult mentors including programmers, scientists, engineers, and business professionals from area companies including SRI International and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
“We’ve invited other groups because FIRST Robotics is about developing a sense of community between mentors and students, and with the people around us,” said Libby Kamen, one of the team’s founding students, now an alumni mentor. “One of the highest awards in FIRST isn’t even about robot performance — it’s about what you do to increase STEM visibility in the community around you. We hope MidKnight Mayhem will help bring some of our team’s excitement to the rest of the school district and local area.”
Kamen, who graduated from High School North in 2009, founded the robotics team during the 2005-’06 school year. “I’m still a mentor and coach for the team (coming up on our 10th season) — and proud to help make the event happen,” she says.
Born in Dallas, Texas, Kamen has lived in West Windsor since 1999. Her mother, Ruth Saletsky Kamen, is a speech and language pathologist in West Windsor and a mentor of MidKnight Inventors. Her father, Dr. Barton Aron Kamen, died in 2012. He was a pediatric oncologist and cancer pharmacologist. He was also a longtime volunteer with FIRST Robotics and served as an adult mentor with the MidKnight Inventors since its inception in 2005.
Her uncle, Dean Kamen, combined engineering and academic skills to invent FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The goal is to spark an interest in science and technology in young people. There are now more than 36,000 teams from 80 countries throughout the world. “I’ve grown up around FIRST, so when I started eighth grade at Community Middle School I knew I needed to get moving on having a FIRST team in my school,” says Kamen. “One of the reasons I switched to the WW-P system was that the private school I had been attending refused to have FIRST in the school, so I left.”
When Kamen was a freshman at North she presented the concept to Michael Zappicchi, the principal at North, and the team was approved. “After gathering a few interested students, the team was registered with FIRST as No. 1923 in December of 2005, in anticipation of the 2006 season,” says Kamen. “FIRST’s official competition season starts in January, but activities sustain the team last year-round.”
Kamen spent the next four years as the captain, doing all of the administrative duties, recruiting students, and organizing trips — as well as designing, building, and driving the robot in competition. “At the time, we did not have a great deal of support — either from local sponsors or from the school itself,” she says.
During her senior year, students from South found out about the program and wanted to be involved, so they partnered with the WW-P Education Foundation to accommodate students from both schools. The MidKnight Inventors now welcomes students from both WW-P high schools, as well as anyone from the local community who wants a chance to be on a FIRST team.
“Our senior year was the first year that we won the New Jersey Regional and won our way into the World Championships, where we finished as division quarterfinalists,” says Kamen. “It was a big break for our team and allowed us to secure a spot in the community as far as awareness goes.”
When Kamen left for college, the administrative duties transferred over to mentor and parent volunteers, but she continued to mentor and advise from afar. “I have never been too removed from the team — often driving back and forth on the weekends from Clarkson University (about a seven-hour drive each way) to work with the team during the build season or to attend their competitions,” she says.
Her degree in communications and digital media with an engineering technology minor comes in handy. “I work with students on mechanical concepts and robot design, as well as with the breakdown of robot and match strategy,” she says. “I also help advise our outreach and media teams to help represent the MidKnight Inventors.”
Kamen is pursuing her master’s degree in marketing and technological innovation at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It still takes her four hours to drive to West Windsor, but she’s closer than in previous years. “I spent every weekend of the six-week build season with the team and returned as the drive coach during the competition season,” she says. “I’ve gotten to form an even closer bond with our students and with the family our team creates, and it’s been wonderful.”
“Being able to watch this program grow from four students to 105 has been simply amazing, and I find that as much as I enjoyed being a student on a FIRST team, being a mentor is a million times more rewarding,” she says. “It’s a perfect mix that draws from my FIRST experiences and my practical knowledge.”
MidKnight Mayhem, High School North, 90 Grovers Mill Road, Plainsboro. Saturday, June 28, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. FIRST robotics competition event features more than 30 high school robotics teams from across the country in a fast-paced competition. DJ from Soundscape Entertainment, vendors, and nonprofits. Food will be available. 609-610-5800. www.firstrobotics1923.org.
