Members of the newly founded Robotics Club met this past weekend in

Siboni’s math classroom and physics lab to start the club’s

brainstorming process and to explore ideas ranging from toothbrushes

with prefilled toothpaste to a robot that can braid hair.

“I really like STEM, and the robotics club really spoke to me,”

sophomore Halie Kim, who attended the Saturday workshop, said.

“Applying what we learn and actually building things sounds exciting.”

The Innobotics Club, named for its use of robotics and innovation,

discussed goals for the year including incorporating design thinking to

create projects to be used by the school, according to senior Serafina

Cinti, co­founder of the club.

“We hopefully will be able to pitch our ideas to the school,” Cinti said.

“We will have them behind us in trying to prototype and design.”

Club activities to stimulate experience with prototyping and designing

have varied from building bridges for model cars to creating towers

made of balloons and popsicle sticks.

“I am hoping that it is a way to catch a little more interest to do some

hands­on activities that are gearing up towards bigger projects,” Chris

Person-­Rennell, one of three club advisers, said.

Senior Sarah Paulson and Cinti founded the club at the end of their

junior year to give like­minded students a creative outlet involving math

and technology.

“I have loved figuring out how things work for a long time,” Cinti said.

“Robotics is basically to invent new things and improve on things that

have already been invented.”

The club offers learning opportunities with engineering, technology,

math and physics, according to Person­-Rennell.

Other club advisors, physics teacher Riaz Abdulla and alumna

Marguerite Siboni (’06), will assist Person­-Rennell in supporting

students working on individual or group projects throughout the year.

“I really would love to see students build products of their own design,”

Person-­Rennell said. “Whether that’d be to make a little battle bot

perhaps or to take ownership of some project and see it through the

course of the year.”

Freshmen and returning students who did not join at the end of last

year will have opportunities to get involved during the school year,

according to Person-­Rennell.

“This is really just a chance to get in and have fun,” Person-­Rennell

said. “This is fun and exciting and interesting and an open invitation to

be creative and invent.”

“It is collaborative, and the club includes so many different people, and

the more the better,” Cinti said. “It is a way to work on each others

strengths and play with the different creative minds with the people in

the club.”