At Least It Didn’t Explode (A.L.I.D.E), a robotics team from Harborfields High School coached by science research teacher Michael Pinto, recently competed in the First Tech Challenge Long Island Championship and boasted a multitude of accolades for their work. Team members Cameron Best, Orla Cummaford-Roberts, Dylan Topolovec, Jacky Xie and Colin Lysaght were faced with the challenge to design and build a robot that could collect and shoot small rings into goals.

In the qualifier event on March 14, A.L.I.D.E. won two first place spots for both overall performance and the most efficient robot programming. The team continued onto the Long Island Championship on April 24, where they captured first place for originality in robot design, second place for the best documentation of the robot design and third place in both the design of the robot and overall performance.