April 1, 2025 By Carol Britton Meyer
The Hingham High School robotics Team 5000 — the Hingham Hammerheads — is headed for Springfield, Mass., this week to compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition at the New England District Championships.
From April 2 to 6, the Hammerheads will compete with 95 other teams from all six New England states following a successful season of earlier competitions.
“The event costs $4,000 to register in addition to money for food, lodging, and transportation,” Team member Kyle Thorne told the Hingham Anchor.
Members of the community who wish to learn more about the robotics team or make a donation toward this effort can do so at:
https://gofund.me/4d867da7
Any extra funds will help the team register for events, buy parts, and support their efforts next year.
In 2013, Hingham High School chemistry teacher Paula Flanagan was approached by one of her students to help start a robotics team at the high school. She promised that as long as he could come up with the $5,000 needed to register a new team, she would be on board.
“He succeeded in getting a rookie grant from NASA, so the team was off and running,” Kyle explained. “They were assigned the number 5000 and named themselves the Hingham Hammerheads to fit both a nautical and punny construction theme.”
This year, the competition takes on an under the sea theme during which teams are required to build a robot that helps seed coral and remove algae from a steel reef on their side of the game field.
Each match includes a 15-second autonomous period, where drivers have no inputs and the robot moves solely on what has been pre-coded.
Then for the next two minutes and 30 seconds, the drive team takes control, working with two other robots on the alliance to collect coral from the human players.
‘Teamwork, professionalism, strategy’
“Robotics emphasizes teamwork, gracious professionalism, and strategy to create an exciting and competitive game that focuses on helping and cheering each other on instead of tearing opponents down,” Kyle explained.
Throughout the weekend-long competitions, the team competes with and against almost every other team as they play 12 qualification matches where they are paired with two random teams for each match.
“It’s only during the final playoff session that the alliance captains pick their teammates, and the three teams stay together until they are eliminated or win the event!” Kyle said.
The team is made up of three captains, senior Vi Palmer and juniors Tori Dell and Logan De Laar in addition to 10 other students who work on building the robot, “acting as the human player in the game, coding the swerve drive, and cheering on the team at competitions,” according to Kyle. “A number of alumni, parents, and community members help mentor the team along with Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan.”
Generous donations appreciated
This is the first time the team will be returning to the district championships since 2018, “so we’re hoping to raise the necessary funds,” Kyle said. “Thanks to generous donations from community members, alumni, friends, and family, the team has almost reached its goal. However, every dollar raised can still help, as we are already planning for the costs for next year. The team is always working toward continuing donors or corporate sponsorships from the local community.”
Anyone interested in supporting the team in some way may reach out to Paula Flanagan at pflanagan@hinghamschools.org.
