Pantherbotics

Mentors and Coaches

  • Dr. Charles Seabury
  • PFC Sammuel Rice
  • Mr. Michael Weingarden
  • Cmdr John Daily
  • Mrs. Michelle Kobrin
  • Mr. Paul Kobrin

Members

  • Michael Liu (President)
  • Jason Fowler (President)
  • Joshua Freedman (Vice President)
  • Roger Fachini (Safety Captain)
  • Brandon Bahn
  • Brian Buchanan
  • Jericho Cezar
  • Rohan D'Souza
  • Victoria Juan
  • Samuel Liao
  • Daniel Xu

Foundations

The Pantherbotics Club has been in operation in one form or another since 2007 as an activity dedicated to stimulating interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As an extracurricular activity we replace lectures with one on one mentoring from volunteer professionals, we replace homework with hands on projects, and we replace testing with competitions. Robotics has become a popular vehicle for promoting technical interest, in that it combines mechanics, electronics, sensor technology and embedded software, in a dynamic form that has the ability to capture the imagination of students. It also provides a natural exposure to a variety of practical skills such as basic manual and CNC machining, wiring, electronics testing and programming. With our own dedicated (though small) laboratory, we can design, build and test complex electromechanical machines. We currently participate in two major competitions. These competitive events provide a technical focus, a disciplined timeline, and standards for comparison and evaluation. They give the students the chance to meet and share ideas with a broader community of kindred spirits, and have a lot of fun. There are also a large number of college scholarships offered specifically for participants in these competitions. Our program includes off season projects, workshops, seminars and tutorials, as well as service and outreach to the local community.

Sponsorship

While the school system provides the use of the classrooms and machine shop, and the teachers and industrial mentors donate their time for the program, there are considerable additional expenses. The funding comes from independent contributions from individuals and local industrial sponsors. A typical annual budget is:

  • Kits tools and materials ~ 5,000$
  • Competition Registration fees :FRC ~ 6,000$
  • VEX ~ 500$
  • Travel (national championships) ~ 2,000$
  • T shirts, public relations materials ~ 500$
  • Total: ~ 14,000

Past and current sponsors have included :

  • AT&T
  • BAE Systems
  • HAAS Automation
  • ITT Technical Institute
  • Commpower
  • Royal Staffing
  • Raytheon
  • IEEE
  • US Army
  • Amgen Corp
  • J.C. Penny