Prateek Sahay, Aditya Yadawalli, Naman Bhardwaj - Grade 12, and the Acton-Boxborough Robotics Team recently competed in the FTC, First Tech Challenge "GET OVER IT" and won the PTC Design Award with a description that follows.

This award recognizes design elements of the robot that are both functional and aesthetic. All successful robots have innovative design aspects however the PTC Design Award is presented to teams that incorporate industrial design elements into their solution. These elements could simplify the robot giving it a clean look, decorate the robot, or otherwise express the creativity of the team. The winning design should not compromise the practical operation of the robots but compliment its purpose.

The team was presented this award because of their forward thinking and use of complex mechanisms that no other team has ever used. In every day terms, it was called "the coolest robot" out of 20 teams represented in event.

Prateek was also invited to present his team, trophy and robot at Raytheon site. Solidworks and Raytheon had funded the team this year and now they have offered continued support. MIT Lincoln lab has also offered to mentor and fund them moving forward.

The members of the team include: Prateek Sahay--12, Mitchell Willis--12, Aditya Yadawalli--12, Gil Shohet--12, Naman Bhardwaj--12, Clark Jacobson--10, Ruben Markowitz--11, Rohan Kadambi--9 and Jerry Yang--9.

The team now participates in the State Competition on March 12, 2011 at Palmer Regional HS in Palmer, MA.

Congratulation and good luck to the team!

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