The Sherborn-based Brain Busters robotics team has secured a spot at the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) New England Championship. The team faired remarkably well for its first year competing at the high school level, and is ranked 16th out of over 200 teams in the New England region. The team earned its spot at the North Shore and Central Massachusetts qualifying events, where they made it to the finals and semi-finals respectively. The team also took home five awards for its performance and outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering in their communities.
The Brain Busters team is comprised of Ryan Bendremer, Emily Bendremer, Zach Szeto, Sam Randa, Justin Luce, Ethan Wood, Anne Glidden, Emma Luzio, Henry Li, Casey Alperovitz, Davis Howland, Liam Flanagan, and Jayson Stansbury
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international program in which high school students build and program 140-pound robots to compete on a 50-foot playing field. The robots are built in 6 weeks and perform complex tasks to score points in a fast-paced sporting event. In its 28th season, 95,000 students on 3,800 teams from 33 countries are participating in FRC.
Although this is the first year competing in FRC, Brain Busters teams have participated in the FIRST LEGO League since 2013, reaching great success in regional qualifiers, state championships, as well as the world festival. Team member Ryan Bendremer said, “We are so excited to be moving on to the Championships. We never expected this with so many experienced teams competing.”
The FRC New England District Championship will be held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on April 10-13. The Brain Busters is home-based, community team, with generous support from NASA, MathWorks, and BAE Systems.
