First ever drone competition held at BHS

By Owen Lentner

Early on a Saturday morning, the BHS parking lot was filled with students unloading drones and accessories for an Aerial Drone Competition meet. Students from neighboring cities and states all made the early trek to compete here at Branford High.

Schools from as far away as New Jersey and Massachussets showed up to compete on Feb. 22. The BHS Drone Team competed along with a team from Walsh Intermediate School, as well.

The BHS Drone Team, consisting of about a dozen students, meets after school to design code for autonomously flying drones, improve their flying skills, and practice for competitions. Jonathan Cap, engineering and technology teacher at BHS, is the faculty advisor to the drone team. The team’s members include Zoe Fenn, Emilio Arce, Dhruvi Desai, Sarah Kwadade, Masen Mervine, Ella Ng, Caitlin Reilley, Emerson Shuff, and the team’s captain, Meena Groshart.

An Aerial Drone Competition consists of teamwork elements along with pilots and autonomously flying drones. The competitions consist of three sections ranging from coded drones flying through set courses, to teamwork phases involving two random schools working together. Like track or cross country, it’s all about getting the lowest time flying through the course.

Teams were graded on point scales based on their autonomous flight skills and piloting skills. Getting a low time to complete a course along with a skilled pilot or welled designed code gave teams a higher score.

The All-Around Champion from the event, earning the highest amount of points, were the Tech Titans – affiliated with Kabhoom School of Engineering in Edison, NJ. Second place overall in the meet were the Bionic Panthers of Cromwell High School of Cromwell, CT. Third place overall was the BHS Echo Team of Branford High School.

All of the above teams, including BHS, qualified for the Aerial Drone Championship held in West Virginia in the spring.

“We had three teams: Echo, Bravo, and Delta. Our Echo team ended up gaining the most points in the teamwork competition. Along with another school [during the teamwork section], we boosted the other team’s school record because of how well our students performed,” said Cap in an interview.

He also noted that the season is beginning to wind down, but all students are invited to join the team next school year.

“I’m definitely looking for people who are interested in joining; anyone interested in the STEM field, computer science, or just want to have fun,” Cap said.