CLOSTER, N.J.—A group of young robotics experts—fifth and sixth graders known as the “Bot Squad”—presented council members Jan. 15 with a vision of an environmentally-friendly transportation future for Closter: an elevated “green” cable-car system to move people around town efficiently.
Although only a conceptual plan at this point, the young robotics middle school students were participating in a challenge known as the FIRST Robotics Competition, a challenge to high-school science, technology, engineering and math students by FIRST, a national nonprofit focused on increasing interest in advancing STEM education.
The competition sets a six-week timeline and challenges students to compete to solve complex STEM problems, involving teamwork, robotics, and honing project skills while competing against like-minded competitors.
Council members heard initially from the students in December and invited them back to make a more comprehensive presentation, said Zhao Lin, one parent at the Jan. 15 session.
‘Very creative’ project
Lupita O’Brien, Closter Public Library director of youth services who helped the students found a robotics club during the past summer, said their project and presentation was “very creative and very ambitious” and apparently impressed council members, who asked many questions and complimented the students.
O’Brien said six members of the Bot Squad presented to the council about their elevated people-mover system and showed 3D cardboard models of what their proposed people-movers might look like.
She said the system proposed by the team might be similar to an elevated tram line—think New York’s Roosevelt Island tram system that moves people from the island to Manhattan—but designed for Closter.
Moreover, the system would be powered by solar power and wind power, she said.
“To improve [Closter], the kids came up with a solution to help solve traffic jams and generated the idea for a green solution,” said Lin, noting the Bot Squad includes seven fifth and sixth grade students from Tennakill Middle School.
Vinni Sabnani, a parent and mentor to the team, said the kids had “to come up with a real-life solution for an existing problem” though she said that the proposal remains “a little fantasy” or futuristic projection.
“This group conceptualized a green elevated [people-mover] cable system for Closter… They’ve gone way beyond what they had to do and by doing this it may hope to spread the love of robotics and AI [artificial intelligence] and give opportunities for other children in town to test their skills at coding and robotics in other competitions,” Sabnani said.
‘By far the best’
“We get a lot of people that give us presentations… You guys are by far the best we’ve seen,” said Councilman Joseph Yammarino following the Bot Squad’s 10-minute presentation.
Most members asked questions, including possible costs, and thanked the students for their hard work, high-quality ideas and professional presentation skills.
The students asked for the council’s support “in any way possible” to continue their efforts.
Mayor John Glidden said the presentation “was very well thought out” and was impressed with the students addressing potential cost and safety issues associated with an elevated cable-car system to transport residents easily around town.
The robotics team presenters were: Dan and Ash Sabnani, Samaaya Agarwal, Laura Liu and Arjun Kothari.