Fitch High School robotics team combines learning with giving back | Local - theday.com

Groton — Dozens of members from the Fitch Senior High School robotics teams gathered in the school’s foyer Saturday afternoon to package more than 27,000 meals to be sent to an international community in need — an effort the group says further connected them as a robotics “family” while also giving back to the wider community by Mary Biekert, Day Newsroom - Reporters. 

Clockwise from lower left, Shelly Egner and Josephine Bright, both of Groton, and Sherri Facas and Charlie Choi put together rice-soy fortified meals in bags Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019, during the Rise Against Hunger meal packaging event hosted by the Robert E. Fitch High School robotics team, Aluminum Falcons, at the high school. 
Photo: Dana Jensen/The Day

“We are not just a robotics team. Being involved in the community, helping out the next person is the foundation of our mission,” said robotics team head coach Kevin Harrilal, as more than 50 volunteers stood at tables working on thousands of food packages in collaboration with the nonprofit Rise Against Hunger. “Building robots means nothing if you’re in a community and others are suffering. This is teaching our students the fundamental actions of being involved in your community and helping out others.”

With a goal to put together at least 27,000 packages — or more than 4,000 pounds of food — by the end of the day, the team, known as the Aluminum Falcons, was well on its way by 2 p.m., having packaged more than 4,000 bags just an hour after starting. By 3:30 p.m., the team had hit 12,000 packs...

First formed in 2007 with Fitch High School 2009 graduate Anthony Tadros and a teacher, Harrilal helped start the then three-person group while he was working as a robotics engineer at Electric Boat. He is now director of robotics and artificial intelligence for UBS in New York City. The robotics team since has grown into a more than 100-person team that now includes about 40 students, parent volunteers and more than 20 mentors, or professional scientists and engineers — many from Pfizer and Electric Boat — who work one-on-one with students throughout the year.
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Source: theday.com