Your time: Robotics Club, Northampton High School
NHS parent Scott Barton, left, junior Jonah Klein-Barton, seated, freshman Charlie Western, right.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »Sketching ideas.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »NHS junior Ben Tidswell.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »NHS sophomore Daniel Belkin and mechanical engineer Whitney McMackin of Northampton.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »NHS junior Jonah Klein-Barton.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »Mechanical engineer Whitney McMackin, left, of Northampton and NHS sophomore Daniel Belkin.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »NHS sophomore Daniel Belkin, left, and engineering mentor Keith Davis of Northampton.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »Engineering mentor Keith Davis, left, of Northampton and NHS sophomore Jonathan Minoff.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »The group strategizes.
KEVIN GUTTING Purchase photo reprints »
At last year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) regional robotics competition in Worcester, the newly created Northampton High School robotics club was the highest-placing rookie team and won the Inspiration Award. Now, to meet the FIRST 2013 challenge, titled “Ultimate Ascent,” the club is working six days a week under a six-week deadline to design and build a robot that can toss flying discs into a goal and then climb a pyramid.
Last Saturday at the high school, a dozen or so club members were hard at work assembling a throwing mechanism for the robot and brainstorming other critical tasks. On hand to provide advice and encouragement were several parents, a Hampshire College student mentor with competition experience, and an engineering mentor, Keith Davis of Northampton, who brought a co-worker, engineer Whitney McMackin of Northampton, to lend a critical eye to the design process.
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