Autumn Years Winter 2023/24

Pascack Pi-oneers FIRST Robotics Team 1676 Pascack Valley Regional High School District 225 W. Grand Ave., Montvale, NJ 07645

www.team1676.com www.firstinspires.org

Suraj Pandya Electrical System Engineer Axcelis Technologies www.axcelis.com I was on the Pi-oneers from 2015 till 2018 when I served as head of our electrical team, head of scouting, as well as one of our team’s Co-CEOs. When I joined the electrical team my freshman year, I didn’t really know what to expect but I was interested by how different the work was compared to the other robot sub-teams. I quickly learned how much I loved it and spent my four years on the team creating the power and control systems for our robots. I wouldn’t trade my experience on the Pi-oneers for anything. On the electri cal side, I don’t know where else I would have gotten that level of technical skill and expertise in a field in which I cur rently work. Beyond that, being on the team helped shape my leadership, com munication and organizational skills I’ve used at every level since graduating. The skills I learned and the memories I made along the way made the Pi-oneers an ex perience I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.

In the fall of 2004, Team 1676 was established by Pascack Valley High School senior Matt Hayon, Philip Paspalas, a former technology teacher at Pascack Hills High School and Mercedes-Benz, the team’s first corporate sponsor. Their work created the Pascack Pi-oneers. The mission of FIRST Team 1676, the Pascack Pi-oneers, combines the fundamental beliefs of FIRST with the desires of team members to pursue and promote future careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) and to provide STEAM education for the community. The goal is to operate as a cohesive team, competing with Gracious Professionalism under the guise of FIRST and developing students’ abilities to collaborate, create and develop as individuals and collectively as a team. The team strives not only to build a successful robot, but also to master and exhibit the many life-skills necessary to succeed beyond FIRST Team 1676. Corporate sponsors include Rockland Electric Company, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Inserra Supermarkets, Picatinny STEM, Crestron, Haig Service Corp., Gene Hass Foundation, Frank and Rosemary Fol lari, the Jim and Stacy Hansel Charitable Trust, Nu Products Co., Comcast, The Game Zone, Wegmans Food Markets and Cellmark. See the May 2023 WCTV interview with middle and high school robotics students at Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNdVk07Qq3E

WINTER 2023/24 I AUTUMN YEARS 59