News & Events
Westinghouse Team Wins Regional Robotics Competition with a Little Help from Its City Tech Friends
The Westinghouse High School Championship Team
A team of 25 students from George Westinghouse Information Technology High School at the MetroTech Center academic and commercial complex in Downtown Brooklyn couldn’t be happier. In March, the group won the regional championship in the 2007 New York City FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition for Science and Technology) Robotic Competition held at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.
Fifty-three top-flight teams participated in this year’s competition, including those from Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Technical high schools. Also competing were talented teams from the United Kingdom, New Jersey and upstate New York.
After winning this year’s General Motors Industrial Design Award for its highly functional and very effective robot, the Westinghouse team will go on to compete at the national level in Atlanta, Georgia, April 12-14.
“Success is no stranger to the Westinghouse students,” says Dr. Sidi Berri, chair of City Tech’s Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology. “Last year, the Westinghouse team won NYC Regional FIRST’s Imagery Award for their outstanding work in robot design.”
The Westinghouse Robot
City Tech similarly is no stranger to the Westinghouse team. For the past two years, students and faculty from the College’s mechanical engineering technology program have been involved in helping the Westinghouse team design and construct its award-winning robot. City Tech is one of the sponsors of the Westinghouse High School Robotic Team, which proudly displayed the College’s logo together with its own on its competition T-shirt.
City Tech has long enjoyed an active relationship with the New York City FIRST Robotic Competition. Dr. Andy Zhang, a mechanical engineering technology professor, has served as a volunteer robot inspector for the past four years, and James Bryant, a current student, also served as a volunteer inspector at this year’s competition.
In addition, the College has been working with Westinghouse Information Technology High School for several years in affecting transformational change in its technology curricula. And for the past two years, the City Tech Alumni Association has worked in partnership with Westinghouse on a mentoring program to help juniors and seniors advance their dreams of going to college.
"The relationship with City Tech is extremely important to Westinghouse,” says Principal John Widlund. “It is on every level: I serve on one of the College’s advisory commissions; College staff were partners and advisors in the transformation of the Westinghouse curriculum and provide mentors to a number of our students. They are more than just neighbors; they are family."
04/03/07
