News

Speech Team Wins Third Place at States

The Stuyvesant Speech and Debate team won third place at The New York State Championship tournament held at Albany High School on Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment considering the large number of schools [who competed],” senior Miles Purinton said.

Only students who qualified by receiving two half qualifications could participate. Half qualifications are given to the top speakers in each category at every tournament. The number of half qualifications depends on the number of participating students.

“There were about 900 people at States and 100 of them were from Stuyvesant, which shows how well we did,” sophomore and semifinalist Briana Last said. Thirteen Stuyvesant students were semifinalists.

“We did incredibly well,” she said.

Freshman Omika Jikaria placed first in Junior Varsity Oral Interpretation. Sophomore Kashyap Rajagopal placed third in Declamation. Junior Harlan Downs-Tepper placed first in Student Congress category and junior Xander Palmer placed fifth in Varsity Oral Interpretation. Senior Maurizio Martinelli placed fifth in Humorous Interpretation and Purinton placed sixth in Original Oratory.

Robotics Team Qualifies For Nationals

The Stuyvesant robotics team, 694, won the Engineering Inspiration award at the New York City For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Regional Robotics Competition. The event was held at The Jacob Javits Center from Friday, April 4 to Sunday, April 6. The Engineering Inspiration award, the highest award at the competition, qualified 694 for the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia from Thursday, April 17 to Saturday, April 19. This is 694’s fifth time qualifying for nationals.

FIRST is a non-profit organization that, according to their website, hopes “to create a world where science and technology are celebrated.”

Team 694’s robot, named DESbot after their main sponsor D.E. Shaw, a New York City technology and investment firm, is equipped with a robust drive-train, a mechanical device that helps the robot resist erosion, and a manipulating arm. It travels at a speed of 10 feet per second, weighs 120 pounds and is six feet tall. DESbot also has a picture of FIRST founder Dean Kamen on its puncher, the device used to hurdle objects.

The regional competition, FIRST Overdrive, consisted of an oval playing field where robots raced counterclockwise to score points. Teams could score extra points if their robots retrieved balls placed on an overpass above the field’s center and moved them across the finish line or throw them over the overpass. Each match was divided into two periods: Hybrid and Tele-operated. During the Hybrid period, the Robocoach used a remote to control the robot, which responded using programs installed on its hard drive. During the Tele-operated period, the robot was directly controlled by the drivers.

Team 694’s drivers for the 2008 season were senior and president Steven Lam and senior and director of engineering Andrew Mandelbaum. The Robocoach was the sophomore and vice president of engineering Seth Berg.

At the Friday practice rounds, 694 faced a number of difficulties. “Adjustments to manipulator and arm were made to ease the grabbing of balls,” freshman and media officer Mao Hu said. “We also encountered problems with the pneumatic system due to the new design of the puncher.”

After making a few mechanical adjustments to the robot after the Friday practice rounds, 694 had a 7-1 win-loss record during the competition. It defeated veteran teams, including 375 from Staten Island Technology High School—which won Regionals in 2006 and is seeded as one of the best teams in New York City—and 1155 from Bronx Science High School, winners of the regionals in 2007 and recipients of the Engineering Inspiration award in 2006. However, 694 was defeated in the Sunday semi-finals in a close best-of-three match. It played partners 375 and 637 from Montville Township High School in New Jersey and 348 from Norwell High School in Massachusetts.

“Though we have done extremely well so far, I expect us to do even better at Championships, building upon the successes and experiences gained at both New York and Trenton,” junior and president of marketing Jonathan Meed said. “I have to say I am amazed at how well we are doing this year.”

Stuyvesant Math Teams Win State Math League

Thirty-five Stuyvesant students competed in the New York State Mathematics League (NYSML) competition on Saturday, April 5 in Monroe County in upstate New York.

Senior Artur Dmowski won the individual event and senior and two-time NYSML winner Danny Zhu was awarded the first-ever Berman-Rockow Award for Mathlete Extraordinaire.

Ninety students from private and public high schools throughout the city were divided into six teams. Six out of the 11 NYC team captains were from Stuyvesant—seniors Ken Suzuki, Eliot Kim, Jesse Madnick, Artur Dmowski, Jenny Kwun and Julia Wang. The competition consisted of proof, relay, team and individual rounds.

“The competition went very well,” math teacher and head coach of the NYC Math Team James Cocoros said. “Things ran very smoothly.”

Seven Stuyvesant students were among the 24 individuals who received a perfect score on the individual round and qualified for the tiebreaker round.

Team A and N from NYC scored first and second place with scores of 172 and 146 respectively. The team from Nassau County was third place with a score of 142.

The six NYC teams will compete at the National American Regions Math League on Saturday, May 31.

“What I really enjoy is the entire city coming together and truly functioning as a team,” Cocoros said. “It’s inspiring to see the older members of the team encourage and mentor the younger students.”