Hewlett High School’s newest robotics team, Nexus, may be small, but it is mighty.
Nexus is the school’s fourth robotics squad, joining Bionica — an all-female team — Innovo and Roboboogie.
Led by coach Daniel Duffey-Birkenstock, a special-education teacher at the high school, the team is made up of 15 students. Duffey-Birkenstock took over as coach last month, and has been enjoying every moment since, he said.
“I became the coach because of my ability to stay organized,” he said. “It’s definitely a role that requires a lot of making sure permission slips are signed and purchase orders are in on time, because we have such a large club. I was offered the role because I think that it was manageable for somebody of my skill set.”
The school’s robotics teams are well known in the Hewlett and Woodmere communities for being committed and hardworking. There are more than 100 team members in all, and they meet every Friday from 3 to 9 p.m.
“I have no issue dedicating myself to somebody who’s dedicating themselves equally as hard,” Duffey-Birkenstock added. “It was a no-brainer to say yes. It’s a very special group of students.”
Community outreach is a big part of the teams’ activities, and Nexus had the chance to work with David Friedman, president of the Hewlett-Woodmere Business Association, on Jan. 10.
“Our teams not only spend time in the workshop, they spend time in the community, giving back and sharing what they’re doing, especially with the younger generation,” Duffey-Birkenstock said.
Friedman arranged for some HWBA members to hear a pitch from Nexus about raising money for team sweatshirts and donating the proceeds to the Mary Brennan INN soup kitchen, in Hempstead.
“I’ve introduced team members to some local business owners who are making donations to raise $1,000 to be donated to a local charitable organization,” Friedman wrote in an email. “We agreed that The Inn/Mary Brennan Soup Kitchen would be an ideal recipient of funds raised.”
Community outreach members went to Ay! Caramba!, in Hewlett, to pitch their idea and invite feedback from community members. Friedman showed the students how to make a presentation on attracting sponsorship and raising money.
“The HWPS Endowment Fund and HWBA have been working with the HHS robotics club to mentor students,” Friedman wrote, referring to Hewlett Woodmere Public Schools, “assisting with shipments of STEM kits to schools in other states, team logo design, providing team sweatshirts, marketing and learning about practical applications of robotics in the fields of medicine, aerospace, law enforcement and manufacturing.”
Fifth-graders from the Hewlett and Ogden elementary schools had a skate night at Grant Park, in Hewlett, on Jan. 12. Team Nexus presented a demo of its robot there, and spoke about the program, in the interest of recruiting for the middle school robotics team.
Team members demonstrated a midsized robot that can rotate 360 degrees and has a controllable arm that can pick things up and function independently. It took them three months to build.
“Not only do they control the robot, but they program the light sensor, camera and distance sensors,” Duffey-Birkenstock explained.
Nexus presented the robot at a competition last weekend at Sewanhaka High School, in Elmont. In order to move on to the semifinals, the team needed to win either the first or second preliminary round, and was awaiting the results of those rounds this week.
Yeraz Melconian, a junior at the high school and the captain of Nexus, has been involved in robotics since she was a freshman, and helped created Team Nexus.
“At the end of last season, I contacted our previous adviser to make the new fourth robotics team, because there’s a lot of people joining Hewlett robotics each year,” Melconian said. “Especially with the number of recruits this year, there was no way we could accommodate to have a fair experience for all of them.”
Melconian transferred from Roboboogie to Nexus at the beginning of the school year.
Freshman community outreach lead Mahi Patel worked alongside Friedman on the outreach, because she’s new.
“A lot of people rejected us, and I asked Mr. Friedman if he could help team Nexus because we wanted hoodies, but not everyone on the team could pay for one,” Patel said. “Together we came up with an idea to get 10 sponsors, with each one giving $100 in exchange to showcase all of their logos and business names.”
The pitch went well, she said, and they secured all 10 sponsors.
Melconian lead the Grant Park robot demonstration, and said he hoped it would attract a few future members.
“It was really fun to see how all of the team members came together,” he said, “and we grew into a family really quickly, and everyone has their own unique role on the team.”
As a newcomer to robotics, Patel said she is grateful for people she has met and the new friends she has made. “I love that we goof around, have fun and act like a family,” she said.