NEW PALESTINE — Cheers during the competition could be heard throughout the back hallways at New Palestine High School. The school’s robotic team, one of the top teams in the state, was hosting an open house just before winter break to take part in a few competitions against each other to show off their skills.
The idea was to invite the community to stop by and take a closer look at what the team is doing and find out just how good the program really is.
“This is absolutely great and I’m so proud of the kids,” Southern Hancock superintendent Lisa Lantrip said. “Not only do we have a great team here, it starts at our elementary schools. We’ve got it going all the way up and we’ve also got some of the best robotics teachers around.”
A shelf above the workfloor where groups of teammates were competing against eachother is full of trophies showing all the tournament wins so far this year and from last season. The robotics squad is deep into the competitive part of their year and has done quite well winning tournaments and placing in top positions with their next competition coming in January.
Senior Brandon Newcomb was sitting beside the workfloor where the competitions were going on going through the schematics of a design on his computer. He was in the process of designing the team’s next robot.
Newcomb has been involved in robotics since the fifth grade and did so well that he started competing with the high school team when he was only in the eighth grade.
“It’s been great watching our program grow and gain recognition,” Newcomb said. “Back when I joined, New Pal used to have maybe one good team a year and now we’ve grown as a group and are more dedicated, more competitive and we’ve got a lot of good teams.”
Newcomb noted there is no doubt he’ll be going into the field of engineering when he heads off to Purdue University next fall. However, exactly what he’ll end up doing with the degree has yet to be determined.
“You know, I like to think that the job I’m going to be doing doesn’t exist yet,” Newcomb said.
Tim Tarplee is a teacher at NPHS and is one of the sponsors of the robotics team led by fellow NPHS teacher, David Post. With the help of former NPHS teacher, Dan Ginther, they’re proud of how competitive the program has become.
“Something like this, showing off our teams, it’s a lot of fun,” Tarplee said. “The kids get to brag on themselves which is nice because we do have one of the most competitive programs in the state.”
Tarplee noted while it’s been great seeing the growth the program has gone through at the high school level, he’s thrilled so many younger students, even in elementary school, are now interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“That’s a big deal,” Tarplee said. “I graduated from here, and having a competitive robotics team wasn’t even remotely on the radar at all. Back then we just did a lot of things with design. But now to see kids in their bios saying this is their seventh or eighth year in robotics and they’re building and competing robots is kind of nuts.”
The success has brought inquiries from other schools around the state seeking to figure out how to run and maintain a competitive robotics team.
“That to me is the biggest compliment,” Tarplee said.
Senior Drew Potter said it was nice to host an open house so they could show off some of their robots and how well they work.
“Each robot has numerous design cycles that we go through and to see each one of them come together for the model is really nice to see and while we show that off at competitions, it’s really helpful and fun to show off with our teammates here,” Potter said.
The team is not only gearing up for the rest of the regular season but has their eye on the state tournament coming up in March and then the world championship in April.
“The goal is always to win it all, but I’d love to see as many of our teams as possible qualify for the world championship,” Newcomb said. “Right now we’ve got one team currently ranked 11th in the world, and we’re working for more.”
