Cary Academy took 3rd place in the prestigious United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament (USIYPT) in January 2018. Teams of students from schools around the world had been working on complex problems for a full calendar year and joined together to share and defend their research. 

This year, teams of students worked on Moon’s Orbit (Robert Schellenberger and Vincent Wang with help from Rachel May and Abe Weinstein), Electromagnetically Coupled Mechanical Oscillators (Cameron Fisher and Abe Weinstein with help from Obinna Modilim), Projectile Motion Through the Air (Josh Pullen, Ross Matton and Ben Humphries with help from Scott Matton, Will Aarons, Felipe Chiavegatto, Aidan Sher, and Saajan Patal) and Incandescent Light Bulbs and Blackbody Radiation (Maggie Hayes with help from Christian Sodano and Paul Ibrahim).    

The competition on these undergraduate-level physics questions involves both presentation and defense of CA team research but also understanding and discussing the research presented by other schools.  Maggie Hayes (team captain), Robert Schellenerger, Josh Pullen and Abe Weinstein ably presented and defended their work at the competition, but it is truly an effort of the whole group, as no single person could possibly complete a project of this magnitude alone.

USAYPT’s goal is to improve teaching and learning by promoting research at the high school level.  This was the third year that Cary Academy has been invited to participate. The team was started by US physics teacher Matt Greenwolfe, with support from faculty members Dick Mentock, Robert Coven, and Rachel Atay.  

Cary Academy has two JV robotics teams that compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge. On Saturday, January 27th, they went to their second qualifying tournament, their last chance to move on to the States. Both teams (and robots) met the challenge with flying colors.

At the end of round-robin play where each team competes in 5 matches, both Team Q – 5270 and the ChargerBots – 12010 finished with records of 4-1. Scoring rules sort out ties leaving 5270 seeded #3 and 12010 seeded #4. The #1 seeded team was Aperture Science, driving a virtually unbeatable bot; and Deus Ex Machina rounded out the top for as the #2 seed.

During alliance selection, where the top 4 seeds choose two other robots to join their alliance, the #1 team chose 12010 to join them and the #2 seed chose the 5270 to join them. Both CA teams jumped to a higher-seeded alliance, opening the door for our teams to go head-to-head in the finals. 

Playoff rounds use a best two out of three format, and both alliances won their semi-final rounds in two matches, sending both CA teams to the finals, on opposing alliances. Seeding held true to form as the #1 alliance claimed the victory in two matches.

Thus, CA’s Chargerbots (12010) arrived home with a champion trophy. They also earned the Connect Award, recognizing their work to reach out to the community and share robot love.

Not to be outdone, Team Q (5270) came home with not only the runner-up trophy, but also with the Control Award, which recognizes excellent programming systems.

It was an awesome day for CA robotics and the teams now have 2 weeks to get ready for the State Championship on Feb 10th in Greensboro.

Join us in congratulating the members of CA’s JV Robotics teams:

5270 – Team Q
1. John Kesler (10)
2. Matthew Modi (10)
3. Sheridan Page (10)
4. Myla James (9)
5. Zariah Greene (10)
6. Casey Cervenka (9)
7. Quinn Vaughan (9)
8. Ryan Chen (9)
9. Jono Jenkens (10)
10. Evan Snively (10)
11. Loren Troan (10)
12. Han Zhang (9)
13. Brandon Yi (9)
14. Morgan White (10)

12010 – ChargerBots
1. Scott Matton (10)
2. Felipe Chiavegatto (10)
3. Ethan Norfleet (10)
4. Colin Zhu (10)
5. Harrison Truscott (9)
6. Aidan Sher (10)
7. Sachin Amaresh (10)
8. Sarah Hallman (9)
9. Olivia Zimmerman (9)
10. Anisha Rustogi (9)
11. Zach Wiebe (9)
12. Anna Cheng (10)
13. Obinna Modilim (10)