DHS Robotics Team Heading To Nationals (Video)

Danbury High School's ACES robotics team was honored by the Danbury Board of Education Wednesday.

"These students live and breath it," said Danbury High School Robotics Teacher Erik Savoyski. Danbury High School teams have won awards each year since the program began three years ago. Savoyski was named teacher of the year in 2012 at the state Vex Robotics Competition. "I'm so proud. I can't even put it into words. We're going to California for the third time."

Stephan Slabicky, a senior on the robotics team, said the team brings together like-minded students. The contest called for the team to create a robot that would pick up a small bean bag, set it down, pick it up and deliver it to a basket.

Speaking at the Board of Education meeting, Superintendent of Schools Sal Pascarella said these kinds of successful programs don't go unnoticed, and Danbury High School has been given additional money for Advanced Placement classes by the College Board. The students demonstrated their robots to the board during the meeting. The money will be used to train more teachers and to expand Advanced Placement classes and the school system's STEM program.

"When you do these things out there, people notice," Pascarella said.

Sean Inouye, a senior on the robotics team, said, "We work long hours and we collaborate on it."

The board laughed when Inouye admitted team members sometimes ignore other homework to concentrate on robotics. "We pretty much spend all day building this and thinking about ways to build it better," Inouye said.