On Friday, July 13, one day before the second Formula E race in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, Argo Group, who sponsors the DRAGON team, presented a $10,000 check for tri-state area robotics teams (high schools).
Supervisors and students were on hand from Farmingdale High in Long Island and George Westinghouse High in Brooklyn. The contribution will be split up among a few schools and this donation will go towards their STEM education.
The students were presented a giant check in front of the DRAGON team section of the pit in the giant paddock area. This grant will help them build similar technology to what is on display at Formula E races.
“Argo Group is donating the money because we are a sponsor of the DRAGON team,” Argo CEO Mark Watson said. “It will help them build robots and go to competitions that they are in.”
Watson and a driver with the DRAGON team named Maximilian Gunther were available at the DRAGON paddock in the Cruise Terminal to answer questions and interact with the students. They walked them through the technology of the 100 percent electric Formula E cars.
Jerry Dubuke, who is one of the coaches for the Farmingdale High team, said that they will be able to use this money to update their hardware that will be outdated.
“It turns out that Vex, which is the robotics that we work with, they are changing over their core modules to a new V5 version, so we have to buy all new hardware,” Dubuke said. “This is going to go a long way to helping us get those V5’s, which is tremendous.”
Dubuke found out that his team would be able to attend from his Vex representative, Veronica. She said that she found out she had an opportunity and thought of Farmingdale first and asked if they wanted to go.
Dubuke immediately said absolutely.
“There are 15 or 20 robotics teams on Long Island that Farmingdale competes with,” Dubuke said. “The bigger school districts will have a robotics team. We have four separate teams of kids, so we build four robots, each team builds their own robot.”
All of the kids from Farmingdale as well as the Brooklyn high school, George Westinghouse, were enthusiastic to see the cars up close and learn more about the technology.
Gunther, who is an up-and-coming driver, was excited to be at the Formula E race in Brooklyn. He is essentially a back-up driver who is available if someone can’t perform.
“It is super impressive because New York is a special place,” Gunther said. “This track is challenging as well. It is a mixture of everything. There are a lot of visitors and a nice skyline especially in the qualifying.”
Gunther, who was wearing an official race polo, has been associated with Formulae E for this whole race season, but he is a test and reserve driver. He does simulations and tests the newest cars.
He does racing and championships in Formula 2, which is like a minor league for Formula One. For the DRAGON team, he primarily does preparations for the weekend, handles the simulator and does the testing for the engineers.
This will be a significant race because next season they will be using completely new cars. According to Gunther, this is part of the reason that this last race in the season will be very special for everyone.
They are also motivated because this is a “home” race for DRAGON as most of them are American and the team is American. Gunther added that everybody wants to do a good job in this season finale.
Gunther will have a few different responsibilities besides just being someone who will drive in case of an emergency.
“I am with the engineers who speak with the driver and we see how we can improve the car,” Gunther said at the DRAGON paddock. “During the race I am listening to the radio communication from the driver to the engineer and engineer to the driver. From one step behind, I am watching everything and giving my best advice to the team.”
According to Gunther, if one of the drivers on the team is injured or sick he is ready to drive during the race, but he doesn’t expect that to happen.
Alex Burbano, who is going to be a junior on the Farmingdale team, was able to interact with Gunther and the Argo CEO. He was very excited when he found out he would be able to attend this event and liked that he would have the opportunity to try something new.
“The money from Argo will be very helpful,” Burbano said. “We have actually been struggling with some money issues {with the team}. We are upgrading our hardware, which is the main focus of this year’s money. We are buying new V5’s and hopefully that will give us the edge this year.”
There were about five high school students from George Westinghouse High on Tillary St. in Downtown Brooklyn. This was Westinghouse’s second year in a row coming to the Formula E race.
They added that the money that they will receive will be very valuable because it will allow them to buy needed new materials to make a new robot and test it out.
For the next competition that they have in February, they will have regionals and then if they win the regionals they will get a chance to go to the finals. The whole group started on the team as freshman and represent Queens, Clinton Hill and Ozone Park.
Part of the money that they get from Argo will be to purchase new parts and to teach the new freshman how to use the new parts that they get.
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