INTO THE DEEP
2024/25
INTO THE DEEP Events
[01/19/2025] - Qualifier #2, Sewanhaka High School
At our first qualifier of the season we managed to pair up with Team 7407, Team Vega, and make it to the finals! Our autonomous had some struggles but we got very far. Because of our roblox game and great outreach we were also able to win the Inspire Award.
- Inspire Award Winner
- Finalist Alliance Captain
[02/01/2025] - Qualifier #3, Locust Valley High School
At this event we were the 3rd ranked team during qualifications, and paired up with 21605 Spontaneous Combustion during playoffs. In our first playoff match we set the event high score (non-pentalty). Unfortunaly after this match 21605's robot arm broke but we still put up a good fight.
- Control Award
- Playoff Alliance Captain (1-2-0)
[03/16/2025] - Long Island Regionals, Great Neck High School South
For Regionals we came in strong with great outreach and an amazing robot. During qualification our arm and claw both broke down yet we were still picked for the playoffs. Our alliance partners robot then broke down but we put up a great fight. With our Inspire award we secured a ticket to a Priemier event.
- Inspire Award 3rd Place
- Playoff Alliance (0-2-0)
Outreach Events
James O'Brien's Presentation
James O'Brien, former VHDL developer at IBM, shared his journey transitioning to teach physics. With a rich background in astrophysics and cosmology, he spoke about his passion for education, his research in alternative gravitational theories, and his efforts to develop educational board games. Inspiring and enlightening!
Korean Seaweed Soup
With many international students on our team, some of the Korean students shared their culture by cooking us a traditional seaweed soup dish during one of our meetings. It was a delightful experience that not only allowed us to taste delicious food but also to appreciate and celebrate cultural diversity.
Altin Hoxha's Presentation
Friar Industries and Future Business Leaders hosted Altin Hoxha, CTO of Platonic, who discussed how Platonic revolutionizes finance with blockchain and smart contracts. He highlighted a future of faster, transparent markets with innovative smart applications reducing risk and driving progress.
The Robotics Class
This year our newly established Intro to Robotics course at Saint Anthony's is building the future! Powered by Friar Industries, students are hard at work creating their own robots. This class is laying the foundation to sustain and grow our robotics program for years to come.
Open House
As a part of our sustainability plan, we hosted showcases at our school's Open House events. By doing this, we were able to guide the hundreds of prospective students who came into our room through the engineering development process and promote FTC.
Java Tutoring
Our robotics team mentors new members in coding, fostering essential skills. This nurturing approach ensures continual growth and sustainability, as experienced members pass on their knowledge to eager newcomers.
Freshman Carnival
The Freshman Carnival at our school is an annual event for school clubs and organizations to promote themselves and recruit new members. By attending, we were able to recruit and mentor underclassmen, shaping the future of our team.
Stefano Matussi's Presentation
We welcomed Stefano Matussi to join us for a presentation and Q&A where he brought us through his career journey from being an aerospace engineer working with the European Space Agency to becoming a Yale-educated MBA program director at IBM, helping shape the future of their engineering strategy.
Mike Christ's Connection
Mike Christ, an experienced mechanical engineer. Through a productive Zoom call, Mike was able to see our designs, concepts and mechanisms for the development of the robot. He provided us valuable insight as he was very impressed with our robot’s design such as how the head pivots and the lights. He explained to us different mechanisms we could employ in this year’s competition. He was so interested in our work, he is now working with us on Eddie’s design for the 3rd tier ascent.
ROBLOX Game
As part of our mission to spread FIRST and robotics to all, we created a ROBLOX recreation of our robotics lab! Inside our lab you can even play a version of Into The Deep and Centerstage! You can read more about this on the home page.
Robot Dog Goodie Bags
Our outreach team created STEM robo-bags for competition teams, featuring a 3D-printed Snoopy and a CAD robotic dog to inspire the idea that "EVERYONE should build a robot." These bags promote FIRST and STEM, with Snoopy tags distributed in classrooms and at Open Houses to engage young minds.
Advanced Robot Dogs
For our Regional Competition we decided to upgrade our robot goodie bags. Instead of handing out randomly colored robot dogs we made customized variants for each team.
Invicta / Vega / Rise Meetup
In early Febuary we invited our friends from Half Hollow Hills West and invited them over to our school. When they visted up we gave them a tour of our robotics room, played some scrimages, and gave each other advice on how to improve for regionals.
Korean Team Connection
We talked with team 23020, "TC" robotics from 운천고등학교. We shared our progress and challenges so far this season. We compared outreach and gave pointers for future competitions.
Cannon Visit
We visited Canon USA headquarters and toured the interactive camera museum . During this trip, our team learned new and fascinating technologies such as the Amlos. This provided our team with an insight into camera optics and digital photography.
Chris Aliperti's Presentation
Chris Aliperti, an engineering teacher at West Point, joined us for a google meet where we showed him our robot and he gave us feedback on it. He also took us through his journey in the Army and his engineering lab.
Tyler Bershad's Presentation
Tyler Bershad, a former student of our coach and Mechanical Engineer with experience at Amazon, Corning, NSF, and FTC, met with us over Zoom to share his insights. He encouraged us to focus on our engineering process, advising, "Train and build those skills – they will help you solve many engineering problems."
Code 4 Kids, Coding Class
In order to educate young minds about the wonders of coding and robotics. A member of our outreach team, Mairead, along with other members of the outreach and coding teams hosted classes with roughly 12 1st-6th graders to teach them coding in Scratch. We also gave them a rundown on the roblox game we created and showed them how it was developed.
Principals Dinner
The Principals Dinner is an annual event at our school that hosts all of the Catholic School Administrators from around Long Island to discuss what we are all doing. During this event James Bruno shared our ROBLOX game to everyone!
St. Patricks FTC Mentorship
During the Principals Dinner we were invited to help kickstart an FTC program at St. Patricks Elementary School in Smithtown!
FRC Showcase
During the FRC Long Island Regional, our team was invited to showcase our FTC talent to FRC teams and their families.
Freshmen iPpad Distribution
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Our Robot
Robot Name: Autonomous
This year we decided to simply iterate on last years design. We changed out the old gripper for one to fit this years new rules and pieces, and removed old pieces.
Robot Features
- Secure Roller Gripper
- Sample Distance / Color Tower Lights
- Dual High-Torque Motor Arm
- Swapable Signs for Alliance Color
Robot Stats
- High Score: 126
- 2nd Ascent Percent: 100%
- 3rd Ascent Percent: 0%
- Autonomous: 4 Samples High Basket (8x4x2 = 64 points)
Team Captains
John Santi '25
Co-Captain / Co-Founder
Panayi Nikolovienis-Kotsis '25
Co-Captain / Co-Founder
Coding Team
Logan Rembisz '25
Code Co-Lead / Robot Driver
Adam Jacuch '25
Code Co-Lead
Erlis Hoxha '27
Coder / Robot Operator
Outreach Team
Madyson Gavilanes '25
Outreach Co-Lead
James Bruno '25
Outreach Co-Lead
Alfred Puntheth '25
Mairead Hill-Hotz '27
Alexandra St. George '27
Kayla Halpin '26
Build Team
Patrick Wang '25
Build Lead
Timmy Schildknecht '27
Human Player
Aaron Roccanova '26
Geonwoo "Eddie" Koo '25
Ahjin "Bella" Cho '27
Xinyang "Aimee" Yu '27
Apprentices
Isabella Núñez '28
Coding
Brody Morgan '28
Coding
Max Mancini '28
Coding
William Wang '27
Coding
Joseph Zerbo '28
Coding
Zoe Schmocker '28
Building
Bogyeong "Louise" Kim '27
Building
Coachs / Mentors
Mr. Matthew Schildknecht
Head Coach
Mr. Adrian Santi
Team Coach / Facilitator
Ms. Janine Torresson
Team Coach
Mr. Mike Christ
Team Mentor