On February 25th and 26th, students from all over the area gathered in John Hersey High School’s gymnasium to compete in a ravishing rumble of robots that they have spent hours working on. There were a total of 38 teams from 14 different schools. Each robot was being controlled to demolish the others by students standing outside of the massive glass ring. After spending months on designing and refurbishing robots, the Rolling Meadows Robot Rumble team came out of the competition hoisting the first place trophy.

Senior Michael Szydlo played a key role in their winning robot, “Janky”. “The whole process from just a design to a fully functioning robot took roughly 4 months and hundreds of man hours,” he expressed. These students have worked extremely hard throughout this design process, though it all paid off in the end. Janky was constructed with its most important piece being a 18” bar of solid steel with carbide tips attached on each end used to destroy the other competitors’ robots. “Once that bar got spinning fast it demolished anything in its way.” And that bar definitely got spinning, taking out any competitor that set a foot in Janky’s path. 

Szydlo was the main man behind the robot, as he was in total control, steering the robot to victory. “As the driver myself, I understood the assignment and what the judges and crowd wanted to see.” Szydlo proved to be the greatest threat in the ring, “no one wants to see a robot come out of the box all clean and pristine.” He was out for blood and willing to wreak carnage among his opponents.

Though, there were many outlying factors that affected. Senior Elliot Toljanic helped construct the robot with Szydlo in which he explains that there were some flaws with their design process. “Some days we’d come in and have to spend the whole time undoing welds or remaking metal pieces that we should’ve made properly the first time.” Yet, this did not stump the students as they continued to push to finalize a design. 

Mr. Genovese and Mr. Jacoby, who help run the club here at Rolling Meadows, have also spent a great amount of time working with these students on their robots. “We help by teaching students 3D modeling skills that lead to a 3D model of the robot design,” Genovese explains. “It means a great deal (winning), as we’ve seen the knowledge, skills, and experience that has been handed down from all teams over the years in these robots.” 

With covid disrupting the past couple of seasons, there were definitely a few setbacks that Genovese and Jacoby dealt with in order to get students back on track. “Students had learned and adapted quickly this year as we still had a deadline to meet.” Lucky for them, these students were ahead of the game and were willing to exceed the standards.

This win means a great deal to the program and to the school’s community. Battlebots is for people who like using their brains and working hands on. It doesn’t matter how little knowledge you have of manufacturing or engineering, you will be guaranteed to learn the basics of engineering and 3D modeling. It’s extremely rewarding to make a little metal tank that can smash others into bits. Congrats lads.