Lynn Tech, Classical Robotics Team Ahead of the Pack
By Jill Gadsby / The Daily Item, Saturday, April 29, 2006

LYNN - After four rounds of competition on Friday, the Lynn Tech and Classical High robotics team was in first place out of 86 teams from all over the world.
     The team, called TekClas, and its robot "Siriuz Biznes" are in Atlanta competing in the FIRST Robotics Championship.
    The team won a spot at the nationals after being named Rookie All-Stars at the regional competition held in March at Boston University's Agganis Arena.
    Contacted by phone Friday afternoon, Lynn Tech Electronics Teacher Chris Speropoulos said the team finished in eighth place for the day, and they are confident they will continue to succeed in the final rounds of the competition today.
    "The robot is working really well now," he said. "The kids are psyched. We're having a blast."
    Speropoulos said a lot of the team's success is based on the other robots it has been matched with. The robots compete in a basketball-style game where teams have two corner and one center goal to throw balls into.
     "A lot of it is luck of the draw," he said. "One time, the machine didn't work because there was a problem with the playing field, but we still won that match. It's kind of funny."
    Despite their good luck, Speropoulos said the team is maintaining long hours to keep their robot in shape.
    "Last night, I got three hours of sleep," he said. "The night before I got four hours - there's just so much to do. Everybody's wiped."
    But Speropoulos said the atmosphere of the Georgia Dome is keeping the team going.
    "There's people from all over the world," he said. "It's just like Boston was, only bigger. There almost 10,000 teammates. We're having a great time."
    To watch video of the competition, visit http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/.
 

Lynn Team Means 'Siriuz  Biznes' When Raising Funds for Robot Competition
By Jill Gadsby, The Daily Item of Lynn, Friday, April 7, 2006

LYNN-You name it; they are selling it -candy, baked goods and even meat.
    Charged with raising $25,000 to attend the national robotics competition in Atlanta, a team of students, teachers and mentors from Lynn Tech and Classical High School are doing all they can to get donations.
    "We're at the half-way mark, but our problem is each day that we don't book it, the airfare goes up," Lynn Tech Electronics Teacher Chris Speropolous said. "And we can't book it until we have the money. We're leaving on the 26th, so we'd like to make the reservations in the early part of next week. We need the money right away."
    The team, named Tekclas, was invited to attend the national competition after receiving the Rookie All-Star Award at the regional competition held March 24-25 at Boston University's Agganis Arena.
     High school students from all over New England and schools as far as Brazil and Florida entered robots that participated in a basketball-style game where teams had two corner and one center goal to throw balls into.
   Teams had six weeks to complete the robot, which had to meet extremely precise size and weight specifications in order to qualify.    Lynn's robot, called "Siriuz Biznes," took approximately 4,347 man-hours to build and was lauded by competition officials.
  To be selected as Rookie All-Stars the team had to exemplify a young but strong partnership effort, as well as implement the mission of the competition to inspire students to learn more about science and technology. The award is the highest recognition a rookie team can receive in the competition.
  Speropolous said the students have been great about participating in the fund-raising efforts.
   "There hasn't been one negative word about it," he said. "They've all been more than happy. The kids have been like gangbusters going out there all the time. One kid came up to me the other day and said he wrote Bill Gates, Maury Povich and Oprah Winfrey. He said he found their addresses on the Internet."
    Speropolous said the team is running every fundraiser possible.
   "We've solicited a lot of businesses with letters and the kids have gone out and hand-delivered them," he said. "A lot of donations came in that way."
   Next week, the team will hold a bake sale on Tuesday at City Hall from 12-7 p.m.
   On Wednesday at 7 p.m., the students will charge $5 admission to see rock, rap and break dancing performances at Tech.
    "We have almost every day planned," Speropolous said.
    Thursday, the students will hold a walk-a-thon.
    "We're having the teammates go out and tell a friend that they are participating in a walk-a-thon," Speropolous said. "If each teammate tells 10 friends and each of them gets 10 people to (sponsor) them, we think we can raise quite a bit of money that way - we're hoping $4,000."
    Friday, the Four Winds Pub on Broadway will help the team by raffling off meat products.
   "They donate the meat and we get the benefit of the proceeds," Speropolous said. "They buy $100 worth of steaks and raffle that off."
    Next week's fundraisers will be followed by a citywide canning effort on April 23.
    "We got a permit for that, so we'll put the kids at all the supermarkets and the adults will be at the intersections," he said.
     The robotics finals will be held in Atlanta on April 27-29. To help sponsor the team, donations can be sent to Lynn Tech Robotics, 80 Neptune Blvd., Lynn, MA 01902. For more information send an email to speropolousc@lynnschool.org or call Lynn Tech at (781) 477-7420.

Seriuz Biznes is no Joke !

Robots are meant for the TV screen, not for a bunch of kids from Lynn, right? Well, at the US F.I.R.S.T Robotics Competition at Boston University last week, we proved them wrong. Not only was our robot fit for competing every round of the competition, but we came from behind and earned the Rookie All-Stars Award. But this event isn't just meant for the top-seeded rookie team; it has many different aspects which show the true potential of a team, and represents what all teams should be. Helping and cheering on other robotics teams and  gracious professionalism, go into deciding the Rookie All-Star team. Compared to the Chairman's Award, which is the highest honor a non-rookie team can achieve at the competition, the rookie All-Star Award shows just how great this "bunch of kids from Lynn" really can be. We can honestly say we are proud to be part of Team TekClaz. we look forward to the next competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

                                                      Written by Hasan Elsadig and Henry Perez

Tech Robot Team has Georgia on its Mind
By Jill Gadsby, The Daily Item of Lynn,  Tuesday, March 28, 2006

LYNN -- Judges at the FIRST Robotics competition were so impressed by the robot built by a team of students from Lynn Tech and Classical High that the rookie team has been invited to Atlanta to compete in the finals.
  "It's amazing," Tech sophomore Nick Lopes said. "I really didn't think we'd be going to Atlanta, but our hard work paid off. It was definitely worth it. Not only did we come together as a team, but I think we're a family. We couldn't have done it without the mentors and without every person on this team."
  The team, called Tekclas, received the Rookie All-Star Award, which celebrates the rookie team exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort, as well as implementing the mission of FIRST to inspire students to learn more about science and technology. The award is the highest recognition a rookie team can receive in the competition  When presenting Tekclas with its award, a FIRST representative spoke highly of the team.
   "With 14 rookie teams, the judges had a very difficult time choosing just one rookie all star team," he said. "Today, we recognize an outstanding new member of FIRST that has outstanding outreach to other schools. But more importantly, they demonstrated gracious behavior through every match, win or lose, hugging and shaking hands with each and every partner. They are simply a class act."
   Tech Principal Brian Coughlin was pleasantly surprised to hear the team has advanced.
   "I never thought when we began this we would get to this point," he said. "It's just incredible. I'm excited about how much it's lifted the school up. It's just terrific. I'm very proud of the kids and our staff who worked with them."
  Electrical Instructor Bob Beaton said the team deserved the recognition.
  "To see the kids receive that award, it was awesome," he said. "They exhibited gracious professionalism all weekend."
  Tech freshman Fior Espinal said participating in a winning project has changed her outlook.
 "I'm really proud that we made it to Atlanta," she said. "Before I did this, I always thought I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything, but now I feel like I've accomplished something by building this robot."
After spending six weeks and approximately 4,347 man-hours to build the robot, named "Siriuz Biznes," the team must now focus on fundraising efforts to pay their way to Atlanta.
 Monday afternoon, the students were already brainstorming ways to raise money. Plans are already in the works for a talent show, candy sale, canning and possibly a walk-a-thon.
Lynn Tech Electronics Teacher Chris Speropolous was in the process of contacting travel agents on Tuesday, and had plans to approach General Electric, their partner in the competition, to pursue funding.
"Right now we don't know what the cost is," he said. "We're going to do whatever we need to do to make sure we get there. We're going to have to knock on some doors."
The FIRST Robotics competition took place Friday and Saturday at Boston University's Harry Agganis Arena. High school students from all over New England and schools as far as Brazil and Florida worked with professional mentors to design and build a robot that solved a problem using a kit of parts and a standard set of rules. This year's game had robots participating in a basketball style game where teams had two corner and one center goal to throw balls into.
 GE mentor Paul Woodley said there are few changes the team plans to make to the robot when they arrive in Atlanta.
"There are seven or eight big things that need to be incorporated, which won't take much time," he said.
The finals will be held in Atlanta on April 27-29. To help sponsor the team, send an email to speropolousc@lynnschool.org or call Lynn Tech at 781-477-7420.

Lynn students mean 'Siriuz Biznes'

By Jill Gadsby, The Daily Item of Lynn, Friday, March 24, 2006

LYNN -- Look out Boston, "Siriuz Biznes" is coming your way.
 The robot, built by a team of students and teachers from Lynn Vocational Technical Institute and Classical High School, including Henry Perez and Hasan Elsadig, will make its debut at the two-day FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition starting today at Boston University's Agganis Arena.
Siriuz Biznes was built to shoot balls into an elevated gap, a floor-level gap, and to stop other robots from doing the same. It took an estimated total of 4,347 man-hours and six weeks to complete.
Contacted at the Agganis Arena on Thursday, Lynn Tech Electrical Instructor Bob Beaton said the arena was full of energy.
"It's kind of like the atmosphere of a rock concert," he said. "It's pretty exciting actually. This is a blast. It's very interesting."
Beaton said the team, named "Tekclas" spent most of Thursday getting the robot in good working order.
"We're actually in here doing some practice rounds, trying to work out the bugs of our machine," he said. "We've had some practice matches and we've run into some problems, so we're trying to figure out on the fly what should be done so (Friday) we will have the best shot."
Beaton said members from more than 40 teams competing in the competition have been great to lend their expertise to Tekclas.
"Every team is willing to help out the other teams that are having problems," he said. "Us being a rookie team, they are more than willing to come over and help us out. There's not that competitive dog-eat-dog thing, it's more like dog-help-dog."
Thursday's "bugs" were not the first roadblocks the team has run into.
Faced with the challenge of meeting extremely precise size and weight specifications the robot must comply with in order to qualify for the competition, the team had a close call while preparing the robot to ship last month.
Just two hours before it was set to ship, the team discovered the robot was eight pounds overweight and they began scrambling to lighten the load.
Tech Principal Brian Coughlin said the entire school was rallying around the team.
"(Friday) is a big day and Saturday is an even bigger day," he said. "We are sending one fan bus with people who want to go - kids, parents, teachers - so it should be pretty well attended."
Coughlin said the team is also excited
"I met with the kids (Wednesday)," he said. "They had shirts made up and they gave me one."
Coughlin said the team's participation in this year's competition is good news for the school's future.
"The thing I'm most excited about is where this will take us next year," he said. "The robot is a great recruitment tool for us. We're going to bring it (on the road with us) and the kids from the various shops will speak to the middle school kids about it. It's a great way to sell the school to the public."
Coughlin said the school's involvement in the robotics competition may also open other doors for students.
"We hope to hook up with a company called iRobot, which makes the (robotic vacuum) Roomba," he said. "They also make robots for the military and for law enforcement agencies. We'd like to hook up with the CEO and go in for a tour and try to forge an alliance between them and Lynn Tech."

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