Golda Och’s RoboCup team receives two prestigious awards at international competition

WEST ORANGE, NJ — As Golda Och Academy’s CodeRunners robotics team approached the Leipziger Messe — Germany’s large conference center in Leipzig — the flags of many nations, including the United States, Israel and Germany, were waving in the wind. After all of the hard work, planning and a nine-hour flight, the high school robotics team had arrived to represent the United States in the International RoboCup competition.

The team — Aytan Geschwind, Alex Rothschild, Ben Soudry and Nadav Soudry — designed and built two robots that were programmed to play soccer autonomously against competitors in the RoboCup Junior Lightweight Secondary division. After winning in this division at the RoboCup USA competition at The Horace Mann School in the Bronx in mid-April against other top private and public school teams, the four members of the RoboCup team qualified to represent the country and compete internationally in Leipzig at the end of June. In just six weeks, the team and their friends raised funds for the trip by selling personalized 3D-printed phone cases, organizing robot soccer competitions during lunch and securing generous corporate sponsors. With much support from Golda Och Academy, the team made plans to head to Germany with Upper School Principal Christine Stodolski and three parent chaperones.

The Leipziger Messe, where the RoboCup world championship took place, was the size of more than six football stadiums. Overall, there were 3,500 participants and 400 teams from 40 countries all working on the most advanced robotics in the convention center. There were several different RoboCup leagues, including high school and university teams with various sizes and kinds of robots, even humanoid robots. Seeing these different robots truly expanded the horizons of the students and showed them new possibilities of what could be done in this field.

For the CodeRunners in the RoboCup Junior Soccer Lightweight division, there were fierce matches against teams such as Slovenia, Taiwan and Germany, the second best team in the world. There were victories and defeats, including an especially exciting win against the Swiss team. The team created a poster detailing their robots and participated in an intense interview conducted by judges.

During the Super Matches, GOA partnered with three other teams. This newly-formed, expanded team competed against four teams in one match each day as well as a final. The USA CodeRunners were paired with teams from Taiwan, Germany and Great Britain. This was an incredible exercise in collaboration as the teams shared parts, strategy and expertise.

Yet this remarkable experience included so much more than just exciting soccer matches and seeing state-of-the-art robots. The CodeRunners met up with four teams from Israel, including high school teams from Rehovot and the MetroWest Partnership 2000 city of Rishon L’tzion, south of Tel Aviv. The students and chaperones had the opportunity to make a minyan for a mincha service with the humanoid robotics team from Bar llan University in Tel Aviv. The team formed an instant bond with these Israeli students and coaches and sadly noticed that they were required to have security with them at all times. The team celebrated Shabbat in their hotel lobby with a delicious meal delivered by the Dresden Chabad. Because of the team’s Shabbat observance, they refrained from competing in any matches on Shabbat. One team from Manchester in England kindly agreed to play the CodeRunners on Friday afternoon before sundown so they didn’t miss that match.

Being in Germany for the first time for a Jewish day school team was heavy with meaning, remembering those who perished in the Holocaust. The team spent an evening visiting the Leipzig Holocaust Memorial — a plaza with 140 empty chairs representing the 14,000 Jewish residents of Leipzig who were deported to their deaths by the Nazis.

The RoboCup world championship lasted for five days, concluding with an awards ceremony on July 5. At the end of the competition, the CodeRunners ranked 13 out of 22 in their division and were one of only two teams to receive a special Robot Design award presented by the CEO of Flower Robotics of Tokyo, Japan. The team also received an invitation to visit the company headquarters should they ever be in Tokyo. In addition, the team was recognized with the Team Spirit Award.

“The Robocup Junior Competition emphasized the importance of teamwork, the sharing of ideas and competition that supports learning and growth for all participants,” Stodolski said in a press release. “Our students thrived in this environment and represented the school with kindness, generosity of spirit and acumen. We are very proud of their accomplishments.”

According to team member Nadav Soudry, “Our recent trip to the international RoboCup competition in Germany involved putting all our hard work and effort from the past two years into overcoming new obstacles and trying to do the best we can while playing the greatest teams in the world. Looking back on our trip, we learned so much, and we look forward to implementing all our new ideas.”

“This trip was a great learning experience,” team member Alex Rothschild said. “Not only did I learn about working and trouble-shooting under pressure, but I also learned important lessons about cooperation with all different kinds of people. The trip was a cool opportunity to see the directions technology can take and get a glimpse of my possible future.”

Corporate sponsors who helped to make this trip possible included Harrison Research Labs, Online Computing and Communications, and Richards Manufacturing. The school also thanked mentor and benefactor Lynne B. Harrison, STEM coordinator Shira Kelmanovich, Head of School Adam Shapiro and Arco Jeng, the CodeRunners’ robotics coach.

For more information on the competition, visit http://robocup2016.org/en/.

  FEATURED, Golda Och Academy